HTML 5

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indd i 10/28/10 9:54 PM

SMASHING
HTML5
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PUBLISHER’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Editorial and Production

VP Consumer and Technology Publishing Director: Michelle Leete
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SMASHING
HTML5
Bill Sanders
A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication
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This edition first published 2011
© 2011 William B. Sanders.
Registered office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,
United Kingdom
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about
how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our
website at www.wiley.com.
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
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Set in 10/12 Minion Pro by Wiley Composition Services

Printed in the United States by Krehbiel
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This book is dedicated to Jacob Sanders.
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Author’s Acknowledgments
I became aware of the immediate importance of HTML5 thanks to Michael Wilson, Zach
Dunn, and Nick Greenfield, who brought it to my attention. They also introduced me to
Smashing Magazine and a number of other emerging new trends. Chris Webb of Wiley guided
the direction of the book and, in concert with Margot Hutchinson of Waterside Productions,
was able to clear a path for the book to move ahead. Ellie Scott of Wiley helped take care of
the many details necessary in forging the book’s inception. Elizabeth Kuball worked as an able
editor to clarify and smoothen everything I wrote, and Harvey Chute, the technical editor,
worked to make sure that all the code was done correctly and offered suggestions for improve-
ment. Finally, my colleagues at the University of Hartford’s Multimedia Web Design and
Development program, John Gray and Brian Dorn, helped when asked, including one terrible
moment when a missing semicolon wrecked havoc on a program.
About the Author
Bill Sanders is one of the founding faulty members of the University of Hartford’s Multimedia
Web Design and Development program where he teaches courses covering HTML5, informa-
tion and interface design, CSS3, Flash, ActionScript 3.0, ASP.NET, C#, PHP, and streaming
video. He has written numerous books on Internet computing, on topics ranging from
JavaScript to ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns. He lives in rural Connecticut with his wife,
Delia, and one and a half dogs.
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Contents
Introduction 1
PART I: THE LANGUAGE OF THE WEB 5
Chapter 1: Introducing HTML5 1

Creating with Tags: An Overview 8
Incorporating the new HTML5 elements 9
Using continued tags from HTML4 11
Forgetting or replacing discontinued tags 15
Choosing a Browser to Interpret HTML5 17
Mozilla Firefox 18
Google Chrome 19
Opera 21
Apple Safari 22
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 24
Previewing different displays 24
Take the Wheel 25
Chapter 2: Understanding HTML5 Tags 27
Parsing Code 28
Understanding HTML5 and related files 28
Learning which files work with the Web 31
Knowing How Tags Work 31
Starting off with the basic HTML tag 32
Describing your page with tags 32
Identifying the parts of a tag 33
Understanding the role of the comment tag 35
Nesting Tags 38
Take the Wheel 40
Chapter 3: Text Tags and a Little CSS3 43
The Fundamentals 44
A little more organization 45
Thinking about structure 47
Adding More HTML5 Structure 49
Adding Style to Text with CSS3 52
Styling HTML5 elements with CSS3 properties 52
Creating CSS3 classes and IDs 59
Take the Wheel 63
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CONTENTS
Chapter 4: Working with Color Values 65

Understanding RGB Color 66
Using names 66
RGB and HSL percentages 67
RGB decimal integer settings 70
Hexadecimal settings: Thinking like your computer 71
Adding Transparency to Color 74
Creating a Color Scheme 76
From a base color 76
From an image 76
Integrating Your Color Palette with Your Web Page 78
Take the Wheel 81
PART II: PAGES, SITES, AND DESIGNS 83
Chapter 5: Organizing a Page 85

The Top of the HTML5 Document 86
Setting your home base 86
Adding character to your site with metadata 87
Knowing when you need a script 89
A Design in Sections 91
Getting Your Stuff Organized 94
VIII Paragraphs, divisions, and lists 94
Grouping without fracturing 99
Figures and captions 100
Organizing Files 103
Image organization and reference 103
Absolute reference 104
Relative reference 104
Take the Wheel 106
Chapter 6: Displaying Data with Tables 109
CSS3 Table Properties for HTML5 110
Tables and Tabular Data 112
Table basics 113
Styling a Table 114
Adding borders with CSS3 114
Data clarification with background colors 117
Complex Tables 120
Using the rowspan and colspan attributes 120
Practical spans in tables 122
Take the Wheel 125
Chapter 7: All About Links 127
The Link Element and Its Key Attributes 128
Alternate style sheets 128
Link icons 131
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CONTENTS
Prefetching 133
Other link attributes 133
Page Links 134
More of the rel attribute 134
Page anchors and IDs 137
Targets 140
Using Iframes 143
Nesting Web pages 144
Take the Wheel 146
Chapter 8: Navigation Strategies 147
Web Navigation Concepts 148
Designer navigation and user navigation 148
Global navigation 149
Using JavaScript to Call a Linked Page 156
Creating Consistency 159
Vertical and horizontal navigation 160
Applying CSS3 pseudo-classes 160
Understanding the HTML5 mechanics of vertical navigation 162
Using graphic icons in navigation 165
Single-Page Web Sites with Iframes 166
Linking to a graphic 166
Making and using thumbnail icons 167
Using iframes on mobile devices 169 IX
Take the Wheel 170
PART III: MEDIA IN HTML5 173
Chapter 9: Images 175

The Basics of HTML5 Image Files 176
Formats and pixels matter 176
Preserving layers in Web graphics 178
Working with Graphic File Sizes 179
Using graphic applications to modify image file size 182
Placing Images and Creating Flexible Web Pages 189
Image placement with the align attribute 189
Flexible image size with a little JavaScript 191
Application for Dynamic SVG files from
Adobe Illustrator CS5 files 194
Take the Wheel 196
Chapter 10: Sound 199
The Basics of Audio in HTML5 200
Autoplay 200
Controls 200
Preload 202
Loop 203
Browser Support for Audio 203
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CONTENTS
Saved by Source: Plan B 204

Type attribute 204
Source type codec parameter 205
Creating Audio Files 206
Windows 7 Sound Recorder 206
Macintosh OS X Sound Studio 208
Sound Effects: FX on Your Desktop 209
Transition sounds 209
Integrating sound effects into a Web page 211
Take the Wheel 214
Chapter 11: Video 215
Making an HTML5 Page with Video 216
Video and Browser Compatibility 218
Make mine WebM: The Miro Video Converter 219
Converting to 3GP: Adobe Media Encoder CS5 221
Making Videos for the Web 222
Webcams 223
Small camcorders 223
Standard camcorders 224
Screen video capture 225
Video and Source Attributes 225
Src 226
X Poster 226
Preload 227
Loop 227
Autoplay 228
Controls 228
Width and Height 229
Take the Wheel 229
PART IV: DYNAMIC HTML5 TAGS PLUS A LITTLE

JAVASCRIPT AND PHP 231
Chapter 12: Adding Just Enough JavaScript 233

Inserting JavaScript into HTML5 Pages 234
JavaScript in external files 234
Functions 235
Event handlers 236
Using the Document Object Model 239
How the DOM works with your page and JavaScript 240
HTML5 elements and the DOM 242
Storing Temporary Values 244
Variables 244
Arrays 248
Objects 249
Take the Wheel 252
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CONTENTS
Chapter 13: Thundering Your Site with Canvas 253

Canvas Basics 254
A simple canvas implementation 256
Images in canvas and shadows 264
Creating Complex Drawings with Canvas 269
Lines and movement 270
Curves 275
Take the Wheel 281
Chapter 14: Adding Forms 283
Adding a Form 284
General form attributes 286
The form as part of the DOM 290
The Many Kinds of Input 293
The list attribute, the URL type, and datalists 294
Radio buttons and check boxes: Easy-to-select input elements 297
Date picker 301
Take the Wheel 303
Chapter 15: Embedding Objects and Storing Information 305
Geolocation 306
Finding latitude and longitude 306
Getting the map 307
Working with the geolocation properties and the
Google Earth plug-in 310 XI
Storage in HTML5 311
Session storage 312
Local storage 316
Adding and Adjusting Objects in HTML5 Web Pages 320
Adding an object 320
Adjusting an object 322
Take the Wheel 322
Chapter 16: Catching Interactive Data 325
Server-Side Languages and HTML5 326
Setting up PHP on your computer (which thinks it’s a server) 326
Testing PHP 327
PHP Basics 328
The post catcher 330
Data validation 330
Basic PHP Program Structures 332
Temporary data storage 332
Key PHP operators 336
Making an E-Mail Application 337
A simple e-mail application 338
PHP catch and send 340
Adding a header and auto-reply in PHP 342
Take the Wheel 344
Index 345
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Introduction
In 1992, I was stumbling the Internet (we used to stumble prior to surfing) with a program
using the Gopher protocol. From El Paso, Texas, I was able to look up the train schedule
between London and Cambridge in England. At the time, it was like a miracle. Here I was in
West Texas with a London-Cambridge train schedule. Unbelievable!
Shortly after that time when I didn’t think it could get any better than Gopher on the Internet,
up popped the Mosaic browser and the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator soon sup-
planted Mosaic, and I discovered HTML. Now I was able to see graphics and text plus I could
link to other Web pages. In short order, I worked out how to create my own Web pages using
a text editor and the new markup language, HTML. Some of the guys in computer services set
up a host for me, and I was in business.
For a while, it seemed that a new version of HTML was coming out every year or so. CSS and
JavaScript were introduced and more and more browsers became available. It just kept getting
better and better, but after HTML4 (in its many forms, including XHTML), things seemed to
stagnate. This HTML Dark Ages lasted from about 2000 to 2008. Then the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) published the HTML5 Working Draft in 2008. However, after publication
of the HTML5 standards in a draft format, everything was back to a crawl as far as getting my
hands on an HTML5 browser. The team developing the standards has been methodical in the
development process and was planning on implementing the final draft of the standards in
browsers in 2012!
Then one day in 2009 or 2010, I read about a beta version of a browser that supported
HTML5, or at least some of its features. By 2010, several browsers were supporting HTML5,
including browsers made for mobile devices. Online blogs like www.smashingmagazine.
com were publishing posts about HTML5 and so, ready or not, HTML5 was here! Somehow
HTML5 has escaped from the zoo, and the race was on to produce HTML5 browsers. We
have officially entered the HTML Renaissance Period. The excitement is back!
HTML5 is so big that I had to select a focus that would encompass the essence of the markup
language without devolving into a mere reference or encyclopedia attempting to touch on
everything and explain nothing. Naturally, the new features were going to be a major focal
point, but they exist in the context of a host of other tags, and readers learning HTML for the
first time need foundational elements. Also, I had to drop the discontinued elements like a
bad habit and show how the continued and new elements work in concert. Further, CSS3 and
JavaScript play an important role, but they’re only introduced insofar as they relate to
HTML5. (Smashing JavaScript and Smashing CSS cover these important features in detail.) So
I’ve divided Smashing HTML5 into four parts that bring together the heart and soul of
HTML5.
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INTRODUCTION
PART I: THE LANGUAGE OF THE WEB

The first part of the book starts off looking at the different browsers available for HTML5—
including mobile browsers—and gives you a handle on where to start working with this
newest version of HTML. It also deals with the details of working with different file types and
getting organized so that creating Web pages and sites is an orderly process. It explains how to
use HTML5 tags (elements) and the different attributes and values that can be assigned to
tags. Also, you learn how to get going with CSS3. At the end of the first part, you learn about
using color and different color codes with HTML5 and how to put together color schemes to
enhance any site.
PART II: PAGES, SITES, AND DESIGNS

The second part looks at the bigger picture of creating Web page and Web sites. At one time,
designers and developers just needed to concern themselves with how a page appeared on a
computer screen—as screen real estate expanded to monitors reminiscent of drive-in theater
screens. Suddenly, users with mobile devices were looking at Web pages, and design strategies
had to be reformulated to include mobile users. Throughout the book, you’ll see Web pages
presented in mobile configurations for devices like the iPhone and Droid. So, expect to see
screenshots of Windows 7 and Macintosh OS X browsers interspersed with screenshots taken
on mobile devices displayed in Mini Opera and mobile Safari browsers—as well as other new
mobile browsers you didn’t even know existed. It’s not your father’s Web! (It’s not even your
older sister’s Web anymore.)
2
PART III: MEDIA IN HTML5

Only one of the three chapters in this part deals with media that was available in earlier
versions of HTML—Chapter 9, on images. The other two chapters deal with audio and video,
both new to HTML5. In addition to the general types of media, HTML5 brings with it
different decisions about media formats. Several of the video formats are relatively new and
were developed for use on the Web in a number of versions. Not all HTML5 browsers use the
same video formats, but, fortunately, HTML5 has structures whereby it can check the video
formats until it finds one that will run on a given browser. In addition to the new elements for
audio and video come several new attributes and values available to optimize media on the
Web, and I cover these attributes and values in this part.
PART IV: DYNAMIC HTML5 TAGS PLUS A LITTLE

JAVASCRIPT AND PHP
One of the most anticipated features of HTML5 has been the canvas element. However, in
order to get the most out of canvas, you need both JavaScript and CSS3. So, in this part, you
learn enough JavaScript with the HTML5 Document Object Model (DOM) to work effec-
tively with canvas and CSS3. Likewise, HTML5 brought with it several new form attributes,
but as with most forms, they need help for processing the information. Using JavaScript,
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INTRODUCTION
you’ll learn how form data can be saved with the new storage objects in HTML5. Also,
you’ll learn how to use PHP to process information entered in HTML5 forms so that you
can automatically send and receive e-mails via the Web. Also, I take a look at the new
geolocation objects and their properties and show you how you can have your Web
page automatically load a map based on your current latitude and longitude coordinates.
You’ll find Part IV full of new materials that will add many new features to your site.
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I
PART
I THE LANGUAGE
OF THE WEB
Chapter 1: Introducing HTML5

Chapter 2: Understanding HTML5 Tags
Chapter 3: Text Tags and a Little CSS3
Chapter 4: Working with Color Values
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SMASHING HTML5
1
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCING
HTML5
THIS CHAPTER IS a general overview of what’s about some of the new browsers that are specifi-
new, what’s the same and what’s been removed cally developed for mobile devices, so you can
from HTML that makes HTML5. At this time, test HTML5 pages on your mobile device, too. To
one of the most important tasks is to find out get started, download all the HTML5 browsers
which browsers work with HTML5, which ones (covered in this chapter) so that you can learn
are in development that promise HTML5 what users will see when they encounter an
compatibility and how each has started to HTML5 Web page that you’ve created.
implement HTML5. Also, you’ll want to learn
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CREATING WITH TAGS: AN OVERVIEW

Most of the content on the Internet is created with HyperText Markup Language (HTML).
You may be surprised to learn that several applications you use every day — for example, your
word processor — also were created with markup languages. However, like all computer
languages, with HTML, all you see is the content, not the underlying language. The language
works like the frame of a building — you know it’s there underneath all that paint and
drywall, but you can’t see it. In this book, I make the language of HTML very visible and show
you how to use it to build your own structures.
If you’re familiar with previous versions of HTML and XHTML, you’ll be able to transfer the
bulk of your knowledge to HTML5. And if you’re brand-new to working with HTML, you’ll
find HTML5 quite simple. Essentially, all you have to do is place your content between an
opening tag and a closing tag, called a container, and the container will style your text or
display your graphics and media on the Web page. Figure 1-1 illustrates containers:
Element name
Opening tag
Container = between
opening and closing tags.
The <p> tag is inside the
<body> container and
8 ‘Hello’ is inside the <p>
container.
Closing tag
Figure 1-1: Containers in HTML5.
For example, the following line,
<h1>This is big text.</h1>
tells the interpreter in your browser to create big text that looks like this:
This is big text.

The text inside the arrow brackets < > is the code. In this case, h1 is the code for big text.
The arrow brackets tell where to begin the container (<h1>) and where to end the container
(</h1>). Everything inside the container is configured to the size and style of the tag, which
is either built into the tag or created using CSS3.
While we’re getting started here, you can have a little fun creating and viewing some HTML5
with little examples. All you have to do is type any of the code provided in this chapter in a
text editor such as Notepad if you’re running Windows or TextEdit if you’re on a Mac. Save
the file with the extension .html, and then open it in an HTML5 browser. To open a Web
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING HTML5
page, just start your browser and then, from the menu bar, select File → Open File (or Open),
and locate the filename. (You can just double-click the file icon on the desktop to open most
HTML files.)
INCORPORATING THE NEW HTML5 ELEMENTS

A tag is made up of an element and attributes. The tag is identified by its element, such as
<h1> — h1 is the element. When we speak of a tag, we’re usually referring to its element, but
actually a tag is its element and attributes. Attributes are the different characteristics or
properties of an element that you can code to change features of the content in the tag’s
container. For now, I’m just going to deal with the element, so I’ll use the terms tag and
element interchangeably.
To give you a sense of the new elements in HTML5, Table 1.1 shows all the new elements,
along with a brief description of each. Later in this book, I give lots of examples and explain
how to use these elements.
Table 1.1 New Elements in HTML5

New Element Description
<article> Self-contained composition in document
<aside> Content tangentially related to content of the article

9
<audio> Sound content container
<canvas> Graphic development container
<command> A command that the user can invoke
<datalist> List generator when used with the <input> element and its new list attribute
<details> Discloses details of an element
<embed> External interactive plug-in or content
<figcaption> Caption tag for the figure element

<figure> Contains a group of media content and their caption
<footer> Container for a footer for a section or page
<header> Container for header for a section or page
<hgroup> A heading of a section with multiple h1 to h6 elements in a document
<keygen> The key pair generator control representation.
<mark> A string of text in one document, marked or highlighted for reference in another
document
continued
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Table 1.1 (continued)
New Element Description
<meter> Container for a known range of values (for example, disk use)
<nav> Representation of a section of a document intended for navigation
<output> Defines the progress of a task of any kind
<progress> Representation of the progress made in a task (such as percentage complete in a

download operation)
<rp> Indicator in Ruby (a programming language) annotations to define what to show brows-
ers that don’t support the <ruby> element
<rt> Marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation
<ruby> Element for spans with ruby annotations
<section> Theme identifier for content grouping
<source> Container for multiple specification of media resources
<summary> Information on a <details> element
<time> Container for a date/time
<video> Element for linking to a video file

10 <wbr> Representation of a line break opportunity to guide the hyphenation of long words or
text strings
Some of the new elements, like <video> and <audio> add multimedia to HTML and
represent a major new capacity to HTML. Others, like <ruby>, are quite specialized, and
unless you need certain East Asian characters, you’re unlikely to use that element.
One characteristic of many of the new tags is that they work in conjunction with CSS3 or
JavaScript. However, most of the new elements still work on their own, without any added
help. When adding a style or some of the cooler features, you may find yourself using a bit of
CSS3 or JavaScript, but you don’t have to learn the entire JavaScript language or even CSS3 to
have some fun with it.
For example, the following script uses the new <datalist> element that has not been
available in earlier versions of HTML. Enter the following code in a text editor, save it as
Datalist.html, open it in your Web browser, and you’ll see how it assists users in entering
data. (You can find Datalist.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5.)
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
05_977279-ch01.indd 10 10/28/10 9:53 PM

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8”>

<title>Datalist</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<label> Which of the following would you like to learn?<br />
<input type=”text” name=”web” list=”lang”>
<datalist id=”lang”>
<option value=”HTML5”>
<option value=”JavaScript”>
<option value=”jQuery”>
<option value=”ActionScript 3.0”>
<option value=”Java”>
</datalist>
</label>
<br />
</p>
</body>
</html>
When you open the file in an Opera browser, you’ll be given a list of input options, as shown
in Figure 1-2.
11
Figure 1-2: Using the <datalist> tag in an Opera browser.
Unlike earlier versions of HTML, in which text input didn’t show the user an options list, this
one does.
USING CONTINUED TAGS FROM HTML4

Even if you’re familiar with HTML4 (or earlier versions of HTML), you’ll be surprised by the
number of HTML elements you may not know how to use or may not have even heard of
before. For example, what’s the <q> tag? When is it used? If you’re new to HTML, don’t try to
remember all of the elements in Table 1.2, but go over them to get a general sense of the
available tags and a little about their description.
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Table 1.2 Continued Tags from Previous HTML Versions

Continued Tags Description
 A comment
<!DOCTYPE> The document type (only one in HTML5)
<a> Hyperlink to a page or page area
<abbr> An abbreviation
<address> Container for an address
<area> An area inside an image map
<b> Bold text
<base> A base URL for all the links in a page
<bdo> Direction of text display
<blockquote> A block of text
<body> Beginning a body element
<br> A single line break
<button> A clickable button
<caption> A table caption

12
<cite> Container for a citation
<code> Format for computer code text
<col> Defines attributes for table columns
<colgroup> Container for groups of table columns
<dd> Container for a value for the <dt> element
<del> Container for deleted text
<dfn> Representation of the defining instance of term
<div> Demarcation of division in a document
<dl> Head for an association list
<dt> Specification for a name in name-value group (description list)
<em> Emphasized text
<fieldset> Container for a set of form controls
<form> Container for a form typically with input elements
<h1> to <h6> Text header 1 to header 6
<head> Container for the first code to be interpreted by browser
<hr> Horizontal rule (line)
05_977279-ch01.indd 12 10/28/10 9:53 PM

<html> Container for an HTML document
<i> Italic text
<iframe> Frame an inline sub window
<img> Image container
<input> User-input field within a form container
<ins> Container for inserted text within implied paragraph boundaries
<kbd> Container for user keyboard input
<label> Representation of a caption in a user interface
<legend> Title in a fieldset border
<li> List item indicator
<link> A resource reference (for example, CSS)
<map> Image map container
<mark> Text in one context marked for text in different context
<menu> Container for a list of commands
<meta> Container for meta information 13

<object> Container for embedded object (for example, a SWF file)
<ol> A numbered (ordered) list
<optgroup> An option grouping header in an options list
<option> Container for individual options in a drop-down list
<p> A paragraph block
<param> Plug-in parameters
<pre> Preformatted text format
<q> Enclosed text with quotation marks
<samp> Computer code output or snippet
<script> Container for script for CSS, JavaScript, or another recognized script
<select> A selectable list
<small> Small text
<span> Inline section in a document
<strong> Strong text that looks like bold
<style> Container for a style definition
continued
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Table 1.2 (continued)
<sub> Subscripted text
<sup> Superscripted text
<table> A table definition
<tbody> Demarcation for a block of rows for a table’s body
<td> A table cell
<textarea> A text area container
<tfoot> Representation for a block of rows of column summaries for a table
<th> Table header format
<thead> Representation of a block of rows of column summaries for a table header
<title> The document title
<tr> Demarcation of a table row
<ul> An unordered list (a bullet list)
<var> Variable style in formula
14 Most of the elements with the same names from HTML4 are the same in every way in
HTML5, but some have slightly modified meanings. Also, rules for some tags have changed.
For example, in creating tables, the tag for specifying a row <tr> no longer requires a closing
</tr> tag. Some attributes for elements have changed as well. As you continue to learn about
the new features of HTML5, you’ll find that many of the “old” elements have lots of new
characteristics. The following HTML table script provides a new example with old elements.
Enter this text into your text editor, save it as NewOldTable.html, and open it in an Opera
browser.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Table</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
=Element Types=
</caption>
<thead>
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<tr>
<th> Type
<th> Text
<th> Graphics
<tbody>
<tr>
<th> UI
<td> text input
<td> button
<tr>
<th> Links
<td> underlined
<td> icon
</table>
</body>
</html>
Figure 1-3 shows what your table looks like.
15
Figure 1-3: A table created with HTML5.
Generally, you don’t use tables for formatting text. Instead, tables are used for formatting
data — such as data that’s loaded from a database or created dynamically by another program
like JavaScript. In HTML5, though, tables used in conjunction with CSS3 do a bit more
formatting than in previous versions of HTML and CSS.
FORGETTING OR REPLACING DISCONTINUED TAGS

This final set of tags (see Table 1.3) is for anyone familiar with HTML4 and earlier versions of
HTML. The following tags have been discontinued, either because they posed certain
problems or were replaced by other structures that better handled what they used to do.
If you’re new to HTML, you can look at these to get an idea of what to avoid. In working with
HTML, you find many samples on the Web, and you’re likely to incorporate them into your
own code. However, because HTML5 is so new, you’ll find that most of the HTML was
created with earlier versions that may have obsolete tags, and you’ll want to replace them with
the newer structures.
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Table 1.3 Discontinued Tags

Deleted Tags Removed or Replaced
<acronym> Replaced by <abbr>
<applet> Replaced by <object>
<basefont> Better handled by CSS
<bgsound> Replaced by <audio>
<big> Better handled by CSS
<blink> Removed in HTML5
<center> Better handled by CSS
<dir> Replaced by <ul>
<font> Removed in HTML5
<frame> Removed in HTML5
<frameset> Removed in HTML5
<isindex> Replaced by explicit <form>
<marquee> Removed in HTML5
<multicol> Removed in HTML5

16
<nobr> Removed in HTML5
<noframes> Removed in HTML5
<noscript> Only conforming to HTML syntax
<s> Better handled by CSS
<spacer> Removed in HTML5
<strike> Better handled by CSS
<tt> Better handled by CSS
<u> Better handled by CSS
One of the most common discontinued tags is <center>, but you can easily center text
using a little CSS, as shown in the following example. Type this text into your text editor, save
it as CenterMe.html, and open it in your Web browser.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<style type=”text/css”>
h1 {
text-align:center;
}
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</style>
<title>Center with CSS</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Headers Can Be Centered</h1>
</body>
</html>
All you’re going to see when you test the code in your browser is:
Headers Can Be Centered
It may look like a lot of work to get a simple centered header, but pages are generally short,
and you can center any header with an <h1> tag because you’ve changed the behavior of the
tag. You can change any tag you want with CSS. (You’ll learn about CSS3 in Chapter 3, but
you’ve already used it if you see the header in the middle of your page.)
CHOOSING A BROWSER TO INTERPRET HTML5

If you want to start a lively discussion with other HTML5 developers, just ask, “What’s the
best browser?” You should be most concerned with what browser those who will be viewing
your Web site use — not which browser other developers use. In general, developers use the
best browser until another best browser comes along, so they may actually use more advanced 17
and better browsers than the average Web user. If you want the people who visit your site to
have the best experience possible, try to find out what browser they’re most likely to use. An
even better idea when developing software for yourself or a client is to test your Web pages on
all major browsers and on at least the two major platforms — Macintosh and Windows. The
major browser developers also make browsers for the Linux OS, but very few people use their
Linux box for browsing the Web.
In looking at the major browsers that support HTML5, most can be used either by Windows
or by Macintosh operating systems, but sometimes a browser will require a newer OS. So if
you have an older system, be sure that the requirements for the browser you use work with
your OS.
Several years ago, Microsoft quit making Internet Explorer (IE) for the Macintosh.
However, Apple does make a version of its browser, Safari, for Windows. Three browser
developers — Google, Mozilla, and Opera — do not make operating systems for computers
but make browsers. In this section, I review Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and IE9.
Keep in mind that browsers’ features change all the time. What’s here is current as of this
writing, but it may have changed by the time you read it.
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MOZILLA FIREFOX
Mozilla has its roots in the original browser by Netscape called Netscape Navigator, which
was introduced in the early 1990s. It featured a mascot resembling the movie creature
Godzilla. Mosaic was a browser developed at the University of Illinois; it later became
Netscape Navigator. The combination of Mosaic and Godzilla resulted in Mozilla, which is
currently a nonprofit company, the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is Mozilla’s primary browser
that supports HTML5.
Besides supporting both Windows and Macintosh operating systems, Firefox also supports
the Linux operating system. Linux is not considered a primary OS for home computers, but it
is for servers. Firefox is available free for all the supported operating systems. Figure 1-4
shows a screenshot of an HTML5 application in Firefox.
18
Figure 1-4: The Mozilla Firefox browser.
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Notice that in the URL window (the window where you put the HTML address) the reference
is to file:///Volumes/Macintosh HD/ instead of an http:// address. That’s because
the page is sitting on the computer’s desktop. Also, you’ll find that things looks differently if
displayed in a Windows environment than they do in a Macintosh one — even for the same
browser. (The example page is just for illustration and does not select browsers for you.)
GOOGLE CHROME
Google, famous for its search engine and maps, created its browser, Chrome, from the ground up
with HTML5 in mind. It has browsers for Apple, Windows, and Linux operating systems — all
available for free. Figure 1-5 shows the same exact Web page on the same computer as Figure
1-4 — see if you can detect the differences.
19
Figure 1-5: Google Chrome displaying the same HTML5 page as shown in Figure 1-4.
Other than the different styles of the two browsers, it can be difficult to see the differences in
the page. With a simple page, subtle differences won’t affect how your Web page looks.
However, as your pages get bigger and more complex, small differences can grow.
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One Web page development tool, Adobe Browserlab (https://browserlab.adobe.

com) lets you see how a Web page looks in different browsers at the same time. Browserlab
can be run directly from Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, or you can visit the Adobe Browserlab
Web page. To get a little more dramatic difference, let’s compare the sample Web page in
Firefox on a Macintosh with one in Windows 7 running Google Chrome. Figure 1-6 shows
what the side-by-side comparison looks like. (Graphics are not displayed.)
20
Figure 1-6: Comparing browsers in Adobe Browserlab.
Part of the difference is due to the ways in which Windows and the Macintosh operating
systems display text and user interfaces (UIs). Another view that Browserlab provides is called
an onionskin; it superimposes one over the other and you can see more precisely where text
and UIs appear. Figure 1-7 shows this difference.
The blurrier an onionskin appears, the greater the differences in the way the Web page
materials are rendered. In Figure 1-6, you can see that the view is very blurry, indicating that
some key differences exist between the browsers and operating systems.
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21
Figure 1-7: An onionskin view of superimposed browsers.
OPERA
When I was examining the Opera browser at the time of initially testing the different brows-
ers, it seemed to have the best HTML5 features actually working. Plus, Opera has a special
browser, Opera Mini 5, that you can download free for your mobile devices. HTML5 works
fine on mobile devices, as you can see in Figure 1-8, which displays the sample Web page on
an iPhone using Opera’s mobile browser.
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22
Figure 1-8: Opera Mini 5 browser.
Full-size Opera browsers are available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems
as well. When creating Web pages, you should plan for different size devices. As you can see,
the sample application we’ve been using can fully fit in a mobile device as well as on large
screens.
APPLE SAFARI
Apple makes Safari browsers for Macintosh and Windows as well as for mobile devices. For
comparative purposes, Figure 1-9 shows how the sample application looks on Apple’s Mobile
Safari, developed for the iPhone. Compare this with Opera Mini 5 in Figure 1-8.
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23
Figure 1-9: The Mobile Safari browser.
Just as there are few differences between the appearances of the Web pages as viewed on a
desktop or laptop computer, you shouldn’t see many differences between what different
browsers show on mobile devices. That’s a good thing! Web developers waste a good deal of
time trying to make sure that all their pages look the same on different browsers and plat-
forms. With a common implementation of HTML5, that shouldn’t be a problem. Other
unique features on browsers, such as having tabs, or other characteristics that make Web
browsing easier, are fine as long as the browser’s implementation of HTML5 is implemented
according to the specifications defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
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MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 9

At the time of this writing, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was still in beta stage. According to
Microsoft, its IE9 browser will be fully compliant with HTML5 standards. Where possible,
throughout this book, I’ve included examples showing the IE9 at work with HTML5 Web
pages using the IE9 beta browser. Figure 1-10 shows the test page in the IE9 beta browser.
24
Figure 1-10: Internet Explorer 9.
PREVIEWING DIFFERENT DISPLAYS

As you’ve seen, Web pages can be viewed on a number of different browsers and operating
systems. Web developers need to consider the characteristics of the devices that their pages
are to be viewed on, such as a desktop computer or a mobile phone. Suppose you develop for
an iPhone and iPad (or some other mobile device and tablet); if you can preview your work
side by side, you’re better able to make comparisons. Adobe Dreamweaver, a Web page
development tool, allows the developer to view multiple dimensions simultaneously, as shown
in Figure 1-11.
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25
Phone set for iPhone: 480 x 320 Table set for iPad: 1024 x 768
Figure 1-11: Multiscreen preview in Adobe Dreamweaver.
You can change the device dimensions. For example, a Motorola Droid displays an 854 x 480
screen and a Sony VAIO UX displays a 1024 x 600 screen. The multiscreen preview helps you
decide how to set up your page to optimize it for your viewers. Finding the best compromise
is an art and one that can be made less onerous by knowing as much as possible about your
audience and the devices they’re likely to use to view your materials.
TAKE THE WHEEL

To get started, this first example lets you add some information about yourself. Don’t worry
about understanding everything (or anything!) unless you have some background in HTML.
Just substitute things about yourself in the areas marked with double equal signs. Save the
page to your computer using the name wheel1.html. (You can find wheel1.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5.)
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
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<head>
body {
background-color:blanchedAlmond;
color:saddleBrown;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size:12px;
margin-left:20px;
}
h1, h2 {
font-family:”Arial Black”, Gadget, sans-serif;
color:midnightBlue;
}
h1 {
text-align:center;
}
h3 {
background-color:goldenrod;
color:ghostwhite;
font-size:11px;
font-family:”Arial”;
}
</style>
<title>The Wheel</title>
</head>
26 <body>
<h1> ==Your Name== : The Mighty HTML5 Web Developer</h1>
<h2> ==Your Company Name== provides full Web services</h2>
<ul>
<li>==Service 1==</li>
<li>==Service 2== </li>
</ul>
<h3> All services guaranteed. Our complaint department is located at: ==URL
where complains can be sent== . </h3>
</body>
</html>
When you test it in a browser, see if it looks like what you expected. Also, you might want to
see what it looks like in different browsers and on your mobile device. (Remember: Web
browsers are free.) If you want to make some more changes, go to www.w3.org/TR/
css3-color/#svg-color. There you’ll find a list of all the color names you can use with
HTML5. See if you can change the color names in the code to ones you like.
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SMASHING HTML5
2
CHAPTER
2 UNDERSTANDING
HTML5 TAGS
PROGRAMMERS CHARACTERIZE languages like Java and applications made with

COMPUTER languages as ranging from Flash. In fact, most browsers were bundled with
low-level languages that virtually mimic the the latest plug-ins for Flash so that users could
native language of the computer to high-level view pages created with Flash and Flash Builder
languages that are close to how people talk. (Flex).
HyperText Markup Language Version 5
(HTML5) is a very high-level language. However, However, Web developers still wanted more from
the original HTML had very few “words” with HTML and CSS to run natively with browsers.
which to describe what the developer and Browser makers quietly were adding functional-
designer wanted. As the Web grew, the demands ity to JavaScript required to work with the new
on HTML grew. With help from Cascading Style elements in HTML5. With new versions of each
Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, designers could do browser, not only was HTML5 being fully
more with Web pages, but still, a lot was lacking. implemented, so too was JavaScript and CSS3.
This chapter explains how the different HTML5
More help was available for creating Web pages elements work and how they work in conjunction
in the form of plug-ins that were able to run with CSS3 and JavaScript.
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PARSING CODE
Sooner or later, you’ll hear the phrase parsing code in reference to browsers and HTML5,
CSS3, and JavaScript. All that means is that the browser is reading the code and interpreting it
to do what it’s told to do. It’s just like an international interpreter who speaks English and
Russian — the interpreter parses Russian so that the English speaker understands it and
English so that Russian speaker understands it. Strictly speaking, the parser is part of the
interpreter in the browser, but for all practical purposes, just think of parsing as involved in
getting the Web page to do what you told it to do in the tags you used in your Web file.
In order to correctly parse HTML5, two things have to happen: You have to write the code
correctly, and your browser has to interpret it correctly. That’s why standards are important.
Basically, standards insure that when you write HTML5 code according to the rules set down,
your code does what you expect it to do in all browsers and on all computers. Using HTML5,
CSS3, and JavaScript with the browsers discussed in Chapter 1, you shouldn’t have any
surprises when they’re all fully HTML5 compliant.
Ironically, the standards allow for the most designer and developer creativity. If you want to
have the page look or act in a certain way, following the standards used by the browsers that
interpret your creations, they’ll look the way you want them to look and behave as expected. If
either you or the browser fails to follow the standards, your creativity is ruined. (We don’t
want that now, do we?)
28
UNDERSTANDING HTML5 AND RELATED FILES
As you saw in Chapter 1, to create an HTML5 file, all you have to do is save the code using a
text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac) and use the extension .html at the
end of the file name. (MyCoolPage.html is an example.) The .html extension is important
because it is recognized as a Web page and not something else that your browser can’t parse.
You’ll also find that only certain kinds of other files are recognized by the browser’s interpreter
and need certain extensions. Here are the most common file types you’ll encounter:
.jpg (JPEG graphic file)

.gif (GIF graphic file)
.png (PNG graphic file)
.svg (SVG graphic file)
.css (Cascading Style Sheet)
.js (JavaScript file)
The most important of these are the graphic files because the tools you use for your graphics
may automatically save them with different filenames than those that can be used for the Web.
For example, Adobe Photoshop automatically saves files as .psd files, and Adobe Illustrator
saves its files in .ai format. Neither graphic file format can be used with Web pages. How-
ever, most graphic creation tools will save the files as .jpg, .gif, or .png if you use Save As
instead of just plain Save. When you use Save As, you can select from an available list of file
types on most tools, including text editors, word processors, and graphic drawing tools.
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CHAPTER 2: UNDERSTANDING HTML5 TAGS
Fixing Windows default file extension settings

The default settings for Windows 7 (and earlier versions) is to hide file extensions. That will give your
files a cleaner appearance, but if you have to decide between selecting a graphic file with a .psd
extension or a .png extension, you need to see what the extension is. Here’s what to do:
1. Open the Control Panel.

2. Choose Appearance and Personalization → Folder Options → Show Hidden Files and
Folders.
3. Uncheck Hide Extensions for Known File Types (see the figure).
29
Uncheck this box
Unchecking the Hide Extensions for Known File Types check box in Windows.
Now you’ll be able to see all your file extensions. So, when you want to load a graphic file, you’ll
know whether it’s a .png, .jpg, or .gif file just by looking at the filename displayed on your
computer screen.
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Fixing TextEdit on your Mac

If TextEdit on your Mac has its default settings, you may have had problems saving plain HTML files.
That’s because the default file type that TextEdit saves files as is Rich Text Format (.rtf) and not plain
text (.txt). With .rtf, your text is saved with other code that you don’t want in your Web pages.
Here’s what you need to do to fix it for writing Web pages:
1. Open TextEdit.
2. In the TextEdit menu at the top of the screen, choose Preferences.
The Preferences dialog box appears.
3. Select the Plain Text radio button (see the figure).
30
Changing TextEdit from Rich Text to Plain Text.
Now when you create an HTML5 page in TextEdit, when you save the file, it defaults to .txt and
you can just change that to .html using Save As.
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LEARNING WHICH FILES WORK WITH THE WEB

If you’re new to writing Web pages, the first thing to learn is what files work with Web pages.
Directly, HTML5 recognizes, the .html extension and the three graphic file extensions
discussed earlier (.jpg, .png, and .gif). However, you’ll see a reference to .css files.
These are external CSS files, whether CSS3 or older versions. Likewise, JavaScript files are
saved with a .js extension, and they, too, may have a link reference.
The browsers that parse HTML also parse CSS and JavaScript. In fact, you can have HTML
files with CSS and JavaScript code written right in with the HTML tags. Whenever you see the
<script> tag, you’ll find either a JavaScript or CSS script in the script container (between
the opening <script> and closing </script> tags). At other times, the developer chooses
to put all the CSS and JavaScript code in external files and load them using the <link> tag
for CSS and the <script> tag for JavaScript.
For example, the following code loads the external .css file lookingGood.css:
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”lookingGood.css” />
With JavaScript, the external .js file is called from within the <script> container rather
than inside of a <link> tag. The following loads a JavaScript file named doMagic.js:
<script language=”JavaScript” src=”doMagic.js” />

31
This book concentrates on HTML5, but you definitely need CSS3 for formatting, so you’ll see
it here a good deal, too. For the most part, you’ll see CSS embedded in the HTML code. In
Chapter 3, you learn more about using CSS3 with HTML5. Chapter 12 provides you with a
little JavaScript to use with HTML5 tags, and there you’ll see exactly how to create and use
JavaScript with HTML5.
KNOWING HOW TAGS WORK

When you write code in HTML5, you’re going to need to know which elements to use to get
what you want. As we saw in Chapter 1, you can change the size and appearance of a font
using the <h1> tag. To get started, you won’t be modifying the tags with CSS. When you use
<h1>, you can expect to get the same big black bold text every time. (You can modify it to be
a small green font with CSS if you want, but you’ll have to wait for Chapter 3 to see how to use
CSS to do that.)
In a nutshell, your tags work by dividing up your page into sections that begin with an
opening tag <element> and end with a closing </element> tag. You can write all the
HTML5 pages you want using that method and not much else, and your page will work just
fine. Naturally, you’re going to want to create pages with a bit of flair and help the browser
know right off the bat what you’re up to, but for the most part, you just write tags. So, let’s start
with the basic HTML5 container.
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STARTING OFF WITH THE BASIC HTML TAG

If you’re familiar with HTML4 and describing the document type, you know that you can add
a great deal of detail to tell the browser what’s up with your page. So, the first tag that you
need to consider is not really an HTML tag but instead a tag that communicates with the
browser to tell it that you’re writing HTML5 and not one of the many versions of HTML4 or
XHTML. Here it is:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
That’s it! Nothing fancy, it just announces to the browser, “You can expect an HTML5
document type.” Every Web page you make should begin with that tag, and you do not need a
closing tag. The exclamation mark (!) tells you it’s not an HTML tag, but something a little
different.
DESCRIBING YOUR PAGE WITH TAGS

Right after the first tag that tells the browser what it can expect, you begin your HTML
container (everything between the opening and closing tags). This tag announces the begin-
ning of HTML code and ends when the browser encounters the closing tag. The closing
HTML tag is at the end of every HTML page.
Following the HTML element is the <head> container. Think of the head area as the house-
32 keeping portion of a page. Whatever is in the head will be loaded first, no matter where it’s
used in the rest of the HTML page. To get started, all that’s going into the head is the page’s
title. The title appears at the top of the Web page when you run it. For example, consider the
following title:
<title>Seriously Sweet Page</title>
That title appears on the page’s Windows and tabs. If you don’t put it in, you’ll end up with a
blank or default title. Figure 2-1 shows how the title appears in different browsers.
As you can see, the title Seriously Sweet Page appears in different places on the four main
browsers. On some, it appears at the top of the window and the tab, only at the top of the
page, and only on the tab. This helps the user find your page when multiple pages are open
simultaneously — or simply reminds the user which page he’s viewing. Lots of other content
goes in the <head> container, such as CSS and JavaScript, but for now, just remember to
include a title.
Moving right along, the <body> tag demarcates the beginning of the page’s content. As the
name implies, the body is the main part of any Web page, and only content inside the
<body> container is visible on the page. Between the opening and closing body elements,
you put everything you want on your page. The following set of tags should go on every page
you create — in fact, you might as well use it as a template and save it somewhere so you don’t
have to start off with an empty page to code.
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Figure 2-1: The title appearing on Web pages and tabs. 33
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title goes here</title>
</head>
<body>
Content goes here: A Really Swell Page
</body>
</html>
As you proceed in this book, you’ll find more and more structural elements to include.
However, the preceding few lines will get you off and running with your Web pages.
IDENTIFYING THE PARTS OF A TAG

Up to this point, I’ve used the terms tag and element more or less interchangeably. However,
the element is just one part of a tag. Each tag has attributes and the attributes have values. So,
tags are better conceived of in the following terms:
Element: The name

Attribute: Some characteristic of the element
Values: A state or condition of the attribute
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Figure 2-2 shows all three parts of a tag.
Attribute (language)
Element name Value (English)

Figure 2-2: The parts of a tag.
The number of attributes is different for different elements.
Depending on the element, different kinds of attributes will be available, and depending on
the attribute, different types of values can be applied. As a general rule of thumb, use quota-
tion marks around values, including around numbers. Here are some different examples:
<form action=”http://localhost/php/phpversion.php” method=”post”>

<input type=”text” width=”120” hidden=”false”>
<input type=”submit” value=”Sick ‘em”>
You have to be careful about what you put in between the double quotes. For example,
34 value=”Sick ‘em” is permissible because ‘em has a single quote mark. However, the
value “”Sick ‘em,” he said” would not work because two pairs of double quotes are
included.
The language attribute

The language (lang) attribute in the HTML tag is not used unless you’re creating a page for
something other than English. For example, the following are a list of other languages in which you
may develop Web pages and their corresponding language attribute values:
Arabic: “ar“
Chinese (Mandarin): “cmn“
German (Deutsch): “de“
Hebrew: “he”
Hindi: “hi”
Japanese: “ja”
Portuguese: “pt”
Russian: “ru”
Spanish: “es”
Unlike some attributes, the lang attribute has a wide range of values. Go to www.iana.org/
assignments/language-subtag-registry for the full list.
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A typical situation that may arise is one in which your page has a quoted reference in two
different parts of the page. Within a paragraph, you can put in as many quotation marks as
you want and they’ll show up on the page. However, only a single set of double quotes can be
assigned as a value to an attribute’s value. Consider the following script (quotes.html in
this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5):
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Be careful with quotation marks</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>We read Emily Dickinson’s “Wild nights! Wild nights!”<p/>
<input type=”text” size=”50” value=”Emily Dickinson’s ‘Wild nights! Wild nights!’”>
</body>
</html>
In the <p> container, the double quotes identify the name of a poem. If the same text is to be
set off as a poem in a value for an attribute, you can use only single quotes for the name of the
poem, as shown in the value assigned to the value attribute. Figure 2-3 shows what the page
looks like in a browser.
35
Figure 2-3: Using quotation marks in HTML5 pages and attributes.
When assigning values to attributes, remember to stick with double quotes for the entire value
and use single quotes for highlighting sections within the value. By and large, life will be easier
if you avoid using single quote marks when assigning values to attributes.
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE COMMENT TAG

The role of the comment tag is to help the developer communicate with other developers, as well
as to serve as a self-reminder of what the page is doing. A well-organized page contains informa-
tion about what the page is doing, what may be added or changed, and any other information that
aids developers in looking at a Web page script and quickly seeing what’s taking place.
The comment tag is really two tags — a beginning tag and an ending tag. Unlike other tags,
the comment tag has no text in it to help identify it. The following script (comments.html
in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows where the
comment tag goes and explains what it’s doing.
06_977279-ch02.indd 35 10/28/10 9:53 PM

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Use Comments in Your Code</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Comments Are Important</h2>

Comments help you remember and show others your page design plan.<br/>
Here are some different uses:
<h5>1. Explain to others what you are doing.</h5>

<h5>2. Provide specific directions for tags to use.</h5>

<h5>3. List the hexadecimal values for your color scheme.</h5>

<h5>4. Remember to recharge your portable computer.</h5>

<h5>5. Remind yourself that you have a life away from computers.</h5>

</body>
</html>
36 As you can see when you load the page none of the comments is visible in the browser, but as
soon as you go back to work coding the Web page, they’ll be there. You can put any kind of
text in a comment container and it won’t get in the way of what you see.
One of the many uses of comment tags is what’s called commenting out (using your comment
tags to temporarily remove tags that you may want to keep around for later use). So, instead of
deleting the tags, all you do is to put comment tags around them, and test your page to see if
you like it better without the tags in question. If you think that it looked better in the original,
you just remove the comment tags. If the page looks better without the commented-out tags,
just remove the tags permanently.
For example, suppose, you’re wondering whether a page you’re preparing for a client looks
better or worse with a subheading and footnote. Here’s the original code with the subheading:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Commenting Out</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Eat at Joe’s Restaurant</h1>
<h2>*Has passed most health inspections since 2005</h2>
</header>
06_977279-ch02.indd 36 10/28/10 9:53 PM

<section>
Joe’s has the best food on the block! The food is good, cheap, and tastes great!
</section>
<footer>
<h6>*Little boo-boo in 2010</h6>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
Figure 2-4 shows what the page looks like.
Figure 2-4: The original design.

37
After thinking about the design, you suggest to the restaurant owner, who is quite proud of his
restaurant’s record, that maybe the message might be better received if the subheading and
footnote were removed. However, instead of removing the tags completely, you just comment
them out, as the following code (CommentOutCode.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Commenting Out</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Eat at Joe’s Restaurant</h1>

</header>
<section>
Joe’s has the best food on the block! The food is good, cheap, and tastes great!
</section>
<footer>

</footer>
</body>
</html>
06_977279-ch02.indd 37 10/28/10 9:53 PM

When to use (and not use) comment tags

A general problem with comment tags is that they’re not used sufficiently in a Web page. Sometimes
a few comments suffice — and if a page only needs a few, you shouldn’t add more. Other times, a
page needs a good deal more comments than it has. The number of comments required depends
completely on the size and scope of the Web project and whether you’re working by yourself or with
other developers.
However, sometimes developers get carried away and have so many comment tags that you can’t see
the flow of the HTML code. A page with a long comment after every tag can act like barbed wire in a
field — you keep tripping over it and can’t reach your destination. If a large number of comments are
required for a complex page, put them together in a single container, and then the other developers
can see the HTML code and understand how it’s used.
Once you’ve made the changes by commenting out the unwanted tags, you display it to your
client again, as shown in Figure 2-5.
38
Figure 2-5: The page with the commented-out code.
If the client likes the original better, all you have to do is remove the comment tags, and
the page will look like it did before. You may want to experiment with several different
appearances; by using the comment tag, you can quickly change it while keeping the
original tags — they’re just commented out.
NESTING TAGS
When you create an HTML page, you may nest tags —you can place one HTML5 container
within another container. In fact, I’ve been doing that all along. The rule is: Add an end tag
inside of a container before the container’s end tag. So, if you’re writing a tag within another
tag’s container, be sure to close the inside container before closing the outside container. Look
at the following examples to see what I mean.
06_977279-ch02.indd 38 10/28/10 9:53 PM

In the following example, the <h1> tag closes outside the <section> container:
<section>
<h1>Smash this!
</section>
</h1>
Instead, it should look like this:
<section>
<h1>Smash this!</h1>
</section>
Here, the <body> tag closes outside the <html> container. The <h3> container is correct.
<html>
<body>Really interesting stuff
<h3>Don’t forget to vote!</h3>
</html>
</body>
Instead, it should look like this:
<html>
<body>Really interesting stuff 39
<h3>Don’t forget to vote!</h3>
</body>
</html>
Here, the <header> tag closes before the <nav> tag does:
<header>
<nav>
<a href=”html5.org”>HTML5</a> |
<a href=”css3.org”>CSS3</a>> |
<a href=”php.net”>PHP</a>
</header>
<footer>
<a href=”css3.org”>CSS3</a>> |
</nav>
</footer>
Instead, use two <nav> container sets — one for the header and one for the footer:
<header>
<nav>
06_977279-ch02.indd 39 10/28/10 9:53 PM

<a href=”css3.org”>CSS3</a> |

</nav>
</header>
<footer>
<nav>
<a href=”css3.org”>CSS3</a> |
</nav>
</footer>
Sometimes, when you test your HTML5 page, you won’t see what you expect — or even
anything at all. The first thing you need to check is your tag nesting.
In case you’re wondering about the code, it’s a non-breaking space. (The semicolon is
part of the tag.) Simply think of it as a space around the vertical bar character (|) used to
separate the links. In your browser, you’ll see:
HTML5 | CSS3 | PHP
When you place your navigation code inside of <nav> tags, you can easily spot it as naviga-
tion. However, like all other tags, you have to pay attention to the nesting conventions used in
40 HTML5.
TAKE THE WHEEL

The HTML for the following Web page (TakeTheWheel.html in this chapter’s folder at
www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) has errors that need correcting. It starts off with
several tags that are empty or partially completed. You’ll be responsible for making sure that
the correct tags and text are added where they need to be. Sometimes, you’ll need to close a
container that has been opened (<tag>) or open one that has been closed (</tag>). And be
sure that your tags are correctly nested. (Hint: The very first tag is not an HTML tag but that
special one that begins with an exclamation point!)
<! >
<html lang= >
<head>

body
{
background-color:#F8AC00;
color:#29272a;
font-size:12px;
margin-left:20px;
06_977279-ch02.indd 40 10/28/10 9:53 PM

}
h1
{
color:#29272A;
}
h2
{
text-indent:10px;
color:#0B0B0D;
background-color:#E27107;
font-family:”Trebuchet MS”, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
header
{
text-align:center;
}
</style>
<title>==???===</title>
< >
<body>
<header>
< >My Favorite Things</h1>
</header>
<section>
<h2>My Favorite Music</h2> 41
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
< >My Favorite Movies</h2>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
<h2>My Favorite Computers</h2>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
<h2>My Favorite TV</h2>
==????==<br/>
==????==<br/>
==????== <br/>
< >
< >
<h5>Not responsible for my tastes.<br/>
Take it or leave it.< >
</footer>
</body>
</html>
This exercise should help you pay attention to the little details. Of all of the gotchas, it’s the
little things that slip under the radar.
06_977279-ch02.indd 41 10/28/10 9:53 PM

06_977279-ch02.indd 42 10/28/10 9:53 PM
SMASHING HTML5
3
CHAPTER
3 TEXT TAGS AND
A LITTLE CSS3
A WEB PAGE is unlike the kind of page you put 81⁄2-by-11-inch sheet of paper — you’re dealing
in your word processor and start typing. Web with a far more dynamic viewing platform. So,
pages are designed for computer screens of some the first thing you want to think about is how
sort — whether it’s a big desktop, a laptop, or your page is going to look on a digital screen.
even a mobile device. You’re not dealing with an
07_977279-ch03.indd 43 10/28/10 9:53 PM

THE FUNDAMENTALS
Before we get going on dealing with text on a Web page, we need to consider the fundamental
elements of a Web page. They include three types of actions:
Displaying text
Loading and displaying graphics
Linking to other pages
To display text, all you need to do is type it on the page in the <body> container. You can
style it with the <h> tag as you know from previous chapters, but basic text requires only that
it be in the body of a page.
Loading and displaying graphics uses the <img> tag with the following format:
<img src=”imageName.png”>
You can use only .jpg, .png, or .gif files with the img element. The src attribute refers to
the source of the graphic. The img element has other attributes, but all you need to get an
image on the page is the src attribute so that the file can be located.
Throughout the book, the term URL is often used to refer to a file’s location — no matter what
type of file is involved. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and refers to a standard
44
protocol for finding and using different types of files.
Finally, a link to another page uses the following format:
<a href=”anotherPage.html”>Link abel</a>
The href refers to the linked page’s hypertext reference, or more simply put, its address. Like
an image’s source locations, you’ll see the term url used for a linked page’s address as well.
One more thing you need to know before continuing. The document type declaration
(<!DOCTYPE HTML>) in the very first line is important — don’t ever leave it out. However,
an equally important line is declaring the character encoding. This is used to tell the Web
browser which character set of letters to use, such as the A to Z alphabet, Hebrew characters,
Japanese, Cryllic, or some other set. You can do it in several ways, but this book uses the
following code:
You always should specify character encoding. Although using the <meta> tag is a bit long,
you can just cut and paste it in all your Web pages. If you don’t, you can run into security
vulnerabilities, and nobody wants that.
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CHAPTER 3: TEXT TAGS AND A LITTLE CSS3
Throwing a Web page together works fine but may leave much to be desired in terms of what
the user sees and whether she wants to visit the site again. Let’s look at a Web page with no
structure but with the fundamental elements of a Web page:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Fundamentals</title>
</head>
<body>
This is text. You don’t need a tag for Plain Old Text (POT).
<a href=”anotherPage.html”> Click here for another page </a>
<img src=”logo.png”>
</body>
</html>
As you can see in Figure 3-1, everything is jumbled. The image appears right in the middle of
the link (blue underlined text), the image appears right in the middle of the page, and
generally it doesn’t make much sense.
45
Figure 3-1: The most basic Web elements.
When you’re organizing a Web page, the links should be organized into a navigation system that’s
easy for those looking at your Web page to use. In the page shown in Figure 3-1, the link is
broken up by the graphic and seems to be part of the text rather than part of a navigation system.
A LITTLE MORE ORGANIZATION

One of the basic conventions in Web design is placing the logo in the upper-left corner of the
page. Likewise, Web pages place links organized into a coherent system of navigation. By
adding two more tags, you can go a long way toward organizing your page:
<br>: Generates a single-space line break

<wbr>: Generates a line break opportunity
07_977279-ch03.indd 45 10/28/10 9:53 PM

A line break (<br>) forces a break in the lines of text. You can think of it as a single space
between lines, or if you’re old school, a carriage return. HTML5 has added something new
called a line break opportunity. Sometimes you’ll have a very long word, especially in URLs
and e-mail addresses. The wbr element doesn’t force a line break, but you can place the <wbr>
tag where you would like a word to break in case the page is compressed. This consideration is
especially important for mobile devices because they have small screens. For example, suppose
you have a very long URL that is being shown as a non-linking description like,
www.eatatjoesfinerestaurant.com
If the link name is not broken up, and if the page is compressed, you’ll see a big gap in the text
or the word broken where you don’t want it to be. The <wbr> tag helps you keep your text
broken where you want it. Consider the following script (BasicBreaks.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5), which uses both of the
line-breaking tags:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Adding ine Breaks and ine Break Opportunities</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src=”logo.png”><br>
46
This is text. You don’t need a tag for Plain Old Text (POT).<br>
<br>
He said, “Sometimes you have extremely long words, and you want to make sure that
they break at appropriate places. For example, you have a long name for a URL like
www.eat<wbr>at<wbr>joes<wbr>fine<wbr>restaurant<wbr>.com, and if it has to break,
you want the break to appear in a particular place.”<br><br>
He said, “Sometimes you have extremely long words, and you want to make sure that
they break at appropriate places. For example, you have a long name for a URL like
www.eatatjoesfinerestaurant.com, and if it has to break, you want the break to
appear in a particular place.”<br><br>
<a href=”anotherPage.html”> Click here for another page </a>
</body>
</html>
By adding the two line-break tags, the page looks much better. The paragraph that does not
use the <wbr> tag has a big gap in it where the long URL was not divided up into sensible
break points. Figure 3-2 shows how the page now appears.
Although it’s still not perfect, it’s a lot better than the original, even though two more para-
graphs were added. The graphic is in the upper-left corner (as most logos are), the paragraphs
are separated by line breaks, and in the first paragraph using the long URL, the breaks are
where the <wbr> tag specified.
07_977279-ch03.indd 46 10/28/10 9:53 PM

47
Figure 3-2: Adding line breaks.
THINKING ABOUT STRUCTURE

At this point, more thought should go into structure. With the ability to add text, graphics,
and links, the page can have far more features and much more content. So, you should begin
thinking about things like headings, navigation, and positioning beyond the logo in the
upper-left-hand corner. Start with a simple sketch. Use a scrap of paper to jot down an idea of
a Web page. (Use paper, not your graphic tools just yet.) Figure 3-3 shows an example:
Logo
Navigation
xxx xxx xxx
Graphic
xxx Heading
Text
xxx xxx xxx Navigation
Figure 3-3: Sketch a structure for your site.
07_977279-ch03.indd 47 10/28/10 9:53 PM

Given the tags discussed so far, will you be able to create a page based on the sketch? The only
attribute lacking is one to wrap the text around the image. The align attribute of the img
element will do that. In this case, the image will be to the left and the text to the right, so the
following line will do the trick:
<img src=”kid.png” alt=”kid” align=”left”>
You may have noticed that the alt attribute was also included. That attribute lets users know
what to expect if the image takes a while to load.
So, now, with just a few tags and an added attribute, this next script does a fair job of creating
the page with the structure in the sketch in Figure 3-3.
As you’ll see in the following code (Sketch2Web.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5), I’ve used a pound sign (#) instead of an actual URL in
the navigation links. The pound sign acts as a placeholder while we’re working on the struc-
ture; it works just like a real URL except that it doesn’t go anywhere or cause an error message.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Sketch to Web</title>
48 </head>
<body>
<img src=”logo.png” alt=”logo”><br>
<a href=”#”>Toys</a> | <a href=”#”>Clothes</a> | <a
href=”#”>Sports</a> <br>
<br>
A Good Place for Kids <br>
<br>
<img src=”kid.png” alt=”kid” align=”left”> Kids are serious business. They need toys
that are both safe and educational. Toys need to be fun and allow children’s minds
to create beyond any functionality the toy has. There is no reason that they cannot
be both safe and fun. Children need lots of clothes because they grow so fast. And
they need sports to offset childhood obesity and the illnesses associated with
obesity. <br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>Toys</a> | <a href=”#”>Clothes</a> | <a
href=”#”>Sports</a>
</body>
</html>
Notice that we didn’t use any of the H elements introduced in the previous two chapters. That’s
because I cover them in the next section and give you a better sense of their value. Figure 3-4
shows how close the page came to the sketch in Figure 3-3.
07_977279-ch03.indd 48 10/28/10 9:53 PM

49
Figure 3-4: A page with a basic structure.
© David Sanders
Now the Web page shown in Figure 3-4 has more structure than any of the previous examples.
The navigation bars at the top and bottom are helpful to the user, but perhaps they’d look
better centered on the page. Maybe the top navigation bar should be at the very top of the
page in the center, right next to the logo. Also, the text is jammed right next to the image and
could use some space. Of course, the heading should be in a different style, weight, size, and
font. Also, it’s pretty boring — especially since it’s for kids. However, because the structure is
coming along, you can address those other details when you learn to use more styling tools.
ADDING MORE HTML5 STRUCTURE

In the previous section you learned about the wbr element that is new to HTML5, and this
section takes a closer look at using the familiar <h..> tag and some related tags for structur-
ing text. Also, you saw how to start with a hand-drawn sketch of what you want and imple-
ment it in a HTML5 script. Moving from a fairly concrete sketch to a more general block
outline helps understand how HTML5 is organized into blocks. The first kind of block
examined is the text block — in fact we’ve already begun, in Chapters 1 and 2, discussing
<h1>, <h2>, and other h elements. Figure 3-5 illustrates the block organization.
07_977279-ch03.indd 49 10/28/10 9:53 PM

Figure 3-5: Text block organization.

In terms of organizing your page, the layout for different levels of h elements is the HTML5
<hgroup> tag. For example, take a look at the following Web page (HelementOrg.html in
this chapter’s folder from www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) from Wittgenstein
(who seemed to write using h tags in 1918 when he completed writing Tractatus
50 Logico-Philosophicus):
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Tractatus logico-Philosophicus</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Tractatus logico-Philosophicus</h1>
<h1>by Ludwig Wittgenstein</h1>
<hgroup>
<h2>1 The world is all that is the case.</h2>
<h3>1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.</h3>
<h4>1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts.</
h4>
<h4>1.12 For the totality of facts determines what is the case, and also whatever is
not the case.</h4>
<h4>1.13 The facts in logical space are the world.</h4>
<h3>1.2 The world divides into facts.</h3>
<h4>1.21 Each item can be the case or not the case while everything else remains the
same.</h4>
</hgroup>
</body>
</html>
07_977279-ch03.indd 50 10/28/10 9:53 PM

If we look at the Web page, we can see where the different h elements give the parts different
sizes, but we don’t see the indentations Wittgenstein used in his original writings. Figure 3-6
shows the Web page on a mobile phone — whatever else you think of Wittenstein, his style
sure works well for mobile screens.
51
Figure 3-6: Outline format using <h> tags on the iPhone.
If you look at the original Wittgenstein, you’ll find that his style of writing used an indented
outline that appeared as the following:
1 The world is all that is the case.

1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts.
1.12 For the totality of facts determines what is the case, and also whatever
is not the case.
We can fix that if we want by adding indents to the <h..> tags. We could do this by adding
margins using CSS3 as you’ll see in the next section. However, the purpose of the h element
and the <hgroup> is not to set indents but to help with more general outlines. The
<hgroup> tag sets the highest level <h..> tag in the hgroup container as the outline
element. For example, since Wittenstein wrote Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus wholly in
outline, his entire work using the hgroup element would look exactly like the outline in his
actual Abstract to the work.
07_977279-ch03.indd 51 10/28/10 9:53 PM

1 The world is all that is the case.

2 What is the case — a fact — is the existence of states of affairs.
3 A logical picture of facts is a thought.
4 A thought is a proposition with a sense.
5 A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions. (An elementary proposi-
tion is a truth-function of itself.)
6 The general form of a truth-function is [p, E, N(E)]. This is the general form of a
proposition.
7 What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
The hgroup element is tied into the outline algorithm in HTML5, and although it’s unlikely
that you’ll be using it for writers like Wittenstein, it is useful for helping you think about your
page in terms of the structure within an HTML5 page. One way to think about the
<hgroup> tag is as a mask (or even a Romulan cloaking device) over other h elements below
the highest-level element in the hgroup container. In our example, the h3 and h4 are
masked and only the h2 element is recognized as part of the outline.
ADDING STYLE TO TEXT WITH CSS3

Throughout the book, the reference to Cascading Style Sheets will be to CSS3. That’s because
HTML5 and CSS3 are paired in many aspects, but like other elements I discuss in this book,
52 those continued from earlier versions have been incorporated in the newest version of HTML
and CSS. We really have a mix of new and old in CSS3, just as in HTML5. So, if you’re familiar
with older versions of CSS and you see the same properties in CSS3 references, just treat it as
a continued feature.
STYLING HTML5 ELEMENTS WITH CSS3 PROPERTIES

In Chapters 1 and 2, you saw examples of CSS3 but were given no explanation of what was
going on to add a new style to an existing element. Here, the focus is on adding style to h
elements. In the next three chapters, you’ll see far more aspects of using CSS3. Here, I focus
on the basics of incorporating CSS3 into your HTML5.
All style sheets can be added in three ways:
You can use the <style> tag to define the properties of elements in the HTML5 page.
You can use external style sheets, which are text files where you store a style you may
want to reuse.
Most professional developers and designers prefer the CSS3 external style sheets because
perfecting the desired style takes a lot of work. When you want to make a change to the
design of a Web site, you can make changes to many pages that use an external style sheet, just
by changing the one style sheet. It’s just more efficient than having to change the <style>
attributes in each individual Web page.
07_977279-ch03.indd 52 10/28/10 9:53 PM

You also can add styles without style sheets by using inline styles. An inline style is like a
“Break Glass in Case of Emergency!” technique. A good-looking page has a plan developed in
a style sheet. However, sometimes, you run into a case where you need some feature added,
and instead of changing the style sheet, you just pop it in with a tag.
Embedded style sheets

An embedded style sheet is simply adding the style sheet directly into the HTML5 script. In
the <head> of the program, add the style sheet using the <style> container. Place the
element you want to style in the style container, and then add values to the property to be
styled. Figure 3-7 shows the general format.
Type to define as style sheet

Open style tag
Name of element (tag)
Note curly braces Note semicolons
Close style tag Value depends on property type

53
Property depends on element type
Figure 3-7: An embedded style sheet.
Each element has a unique set of properties, and each property has values that can be assigned
to it. When you change the value of the property, that value appears in the text inside the
element’s container. So, if you change the text color to red, all the text inside the element’s
container will be red. The following script (CSS3fonts.html in this chapter’s folder at
www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) provides an example.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
background-color:#fbf7e4;
margin-left:20px;
color:#8e001c;
}
h1 {
background-color:#8E001C;
color:#e7e8d1;
07_977279-ch03.indd 53 10/28/10 9:53 PM


text-align:center;
}
h2 {
background-color:#424242;
color:#d3ceaa;
margin-left:5px;
}
</style>
<title>CSS3-Embedded Stylesheet</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This Is the Big Head</h1>
<h2> Here Is the Second Head</h2>
The body text is styled for a bit of a eft margin and picks up the color of the body
along with its font. Notice that the background of the heads extends all the way
across the page. Also notice that a space (& nbsp;) gives the h2 text a ittle
indent so that it stays “within” the background. That’s not a problem with the h1
head because it’s centered.
</body>
</html>
Figure 3-8 shows how the styled page looks.

54
Figure 3-8: Text styled with CSS3.
You should be aware that when you use style sheets, you have to pay attention to the little
details — like adding both curly braces, separating the property from the values by colons,
and ending each property value with a semicolon. If your CSS3 style sheet doesn’t work as you
think it should, check those little gotchas!
When using background colors, the background often extends across the entire page. Certain
inline elements such as <span> can be used to contain the background to the affected text.
With background colors in headers that are left- or right-justified, you’ll want to add a space
( ) so that it doesn’t bleed into the background color of the page.
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External style sheets

With all the different kinds of style combinations you may have to consider — including
different formats for desktops, laptops, and small mobile screens — the work involved in
creating a good style sheet or set of style sheets can be considerable. By saving your CSS3
work to a text file, you can reuse your style sheet as often as you want. Plus, you can copy your
embedded CSS and easily paste it into a text file and save it as a .css file.
For example, let’s take a color scheme with a set of colors that a corporate client, Mighty Smite
Web Development, has described as the corporate palette. (That means you can use only the
set of colors provided.) You start with the following company colors:
#3C371E, #8C5F26, #BCA55F, #F2CC6E, #F26205
The background color must be #F2CC6E. You don’t have to know what the color is — you just
have to know that the company has decided that it’s going to be the background color. You’re
told that the designers can figure out the rest.
Further, you’re told that they’d like a version that looks good on a phone and a different one
that looks good on a desktop. So, that means you’re going to need two different CSS3 style
sheets. Later on, you’ll worry about how the browser is going to know whether the user is
viewing from a desktop with a screen the size of a drive-in theater or viewing from a Droid
phone.
55
All that’s required is the following tag:
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”mightySmiteSmall.css” />
This tag goes in the <head> container where the <style> tag had gone along with the
CSS3 code. Now the CSS3 code goes into a separate file. Notice that the <link> tag
contains an href attribute assigned the value mightySmiteSmall.css. That’s the name
of the CSS3 file in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5. The
Small indicates that it’s designed for mobile devices. Another CSS3 file will be created called
mightySmiteLarge.css for non-mobile devices.
To create a CSS3 file, all you have to do is enter the CSS3 code in a text editor or Web develop-
ment application minus the <style> tags. The following shows the example to be used here:
@charset “UTF-8”;
/* CSS Document */
/*3C371E,8C5F26,BCA55F,F2CC6E,F26205 */
body
{
background-color:#F2CC6E;
font-family:”Lucida Sans Unicode”, “Lucida Grande”, sans-serif;
color:#8C5F26;
font-size:11px;
max-width:480px;
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}
h1
{
color:#BCA55F;
background-color:#3C371E;
text-align:center;
}
h2
{
color:#F26205;
font-family:”Lucida Sans Unicode”, “Lucida Grande”, sans-serif
}
h3
{
color:#3C371E;
font-family:Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
}
The top line lets the browser know that it’s a UTF-8 character set, and the second two lines are
comment lines. They’re different from the comment lines in HTML5, but they work the same.
The second comment line is a handy way to keep track of the color palette and can save time
in setting up the style sheet.
56 To test this mobile version of the CSS3 code, the following HTML5 file (ExternalSmall.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) is used:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”mightySmiteSmall.css” />
<title>Mighty Smite Sofware Test Sheet</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Mighty Smite Software Conglomorate</h1>
<h2>This is an h2 head</h2>
<h3>Here’s an h3 head</h3>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut abore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud
exercitation ullamco aboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute
irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia
deserunt mollit anim id est aborum.
</body>
</html>
All the styles in the CSS3 file are used to test their appearance, and the body text beginning
with Lorem ipsum is filler text, used to get an idea of what a text block looks like. (It’s been
used since the 16th century, so it must be good.)
07_977279-ch03.indd 56 10/28/10 9:53 PM

In setting up the CSS3 file, the only setting that specifically targeted mobile devices is the
width setting in the body element. It’s set to 480px because that’s the width of the iPhone
used in testing. However, depending on how users hold their mobile devices, they’ll get
different results. Figures 3-9 and 3-10 show what the page looks like when the phone is held at
different angles.
57
Figure 3-9: Style set for mobile device vertical.
Figure 3-10: Style set for mobile device horizontal.
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Different pixel density

When you’re creating Web pages for output ranging from large desktops to mobile devices, you
have to consider more than just the number of pixels on the vertical and horizontal planes. In the
example CSS3 external style sheet, the width is set to 480 with the code max-width:480px; for
an iPhone with 480-pixel horizontal resolution. However, when you run the application on your
mobile device, the text may be way too big or way too small. What’s going on?
We tend to think of screen resolution in terms of the number of pixels — the more pixels, the higher
the resolution. So, if you set your screen to 1680 x 1050, it has a higher resolution than if I set it to
1024 x 768. However, the resolution actually depends on the number of pixels relative to the size of
the display area. More important than the number of pixels is the number of pixels stuffed into your
viewing area or pixels per inch (PPI) — pixel density. If you develop your Web page on a typical
computer screen, the pixel density is around 100. However, your mobile device is likely to have a
much higher pixel density. For example, my iPhone 3GS has a pixel density of 132 and a resolution
of 480 x 320. If I upgrade to an iPhone 4, my pixel density will be 326 and the resolution will be
960 x 640. However, the phones both have a 31⁄2-inch viewing area. The iPhone 4’s resolution is
double that of the iPhone 3GS, and its ppi is about 21⁄2 times greater. For my Web page, that means
a width setting of 480 will show up as coming only about halfway on an iPhone 4 even though it fills
the width of iPhone 3GS models.
However, because I do my development on a computer with a ppi of 99 on a 20-inch screen, the best
I can get is an estimation of what it will look like on any mobile device. I can estimate what a Web
page will look like on different mobile devices by changing the size of the browser window, but
58 ultimately, you need to actually see what your HTML5 Web page looks like on the target mobile
device.
A unique feature of many mobile devices is that they allow Web pages to be viewed from
different aspects — vertical or horizontal. So, when I’m preparing a CSS3 file for a mobile
device, I tend to set the width to the horizontal. However, you’ll quickly find that different
mobile browsers work differently. At the time of this writing, the Apple Safari browser on the
iPhone displayed the page in a tiny, unreadable page that had to be expanded, but the Opera
Mini browser (as shown in Figures 3-9 and 3-10) on the same iPhone using the same size
screen displayed the page immediately in an optimum viewing size, whether viewed horizon-
tally or vertically.
Inline style
A third way to add CSS3 to your document is to simply add a style attribute to an element
that redefines the content in the element’s container. For example, the following code
(InlineCSS3.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5)
has style changes in the <div> container and the second <p> container:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
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<title>Inline CSS3</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style=”font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:24px;background-
color:yellow;color:navy;”>This is important!</div>
<p>But this...not so much</p>
<p style=”font-size:10px;font-family:sans-serif;”>And this you can ignore
altogether....
</body>
</html>
Figure 3-11 shows what you see when you test the Web page in a browser. Keep in mind that
the second line has no styling at all added.
59
Figure 3-11: Inline CSS3.
The use of inline CSS3 can be invaluable when some feature of your CSS3 external file doesn’t
have a style for something on your Web page that needs to be there. Generally, inline is one of
those tools you want to use both sparingly and judiciously. This is especially true when
dealing with other developers and designers who are working from a common style sheet.
CREATING CSS3 CLASSES AND IDS

CSS3 classes and IDs are ways to extend a style to any element. For example, suppose you
have a feature that you want to add to just some items such as a yellow highlight. If you define
a div or a p element’s background color as yellow, all the text in either of those containers
will be bright yellow — not what you want. On the other hand, if you have a class that defines
a yellow background, all you have to do is to assign that class to an element to lighten it up.
CSS3 classes
You create style classes in an almost identical way as you do element styles. The “dot” (.)
definitions used to create a class in CSS3 are labels you make up instead of using element
names. Figure 3-12 shows how to create a CSS3 class definition.
07_977279-ch03.indd 59 10/28/10 9:53 PM

Class name
dot
Figure 3-12: Creating class definition.
As you can see, the dot definition goes where the element name goes. The rest is identical to
CSS3 definitions for elements. However, implementing a class style is a bit different because it
can be used in almost any element tag.
In order to see how we might want to use a bit of highlighted text, a very handy inline element
is span. The <span> tag can be added in the middle of a block element and only change that
part of the content in the span container without changing the rest of the block. To add a
class to an element, you use the following format:
<element class=”myClass”>
Notice that the name of the class does not include the “dot” from the dot definition. The dot is
used only in the style definition to let the parser know that the word is a class and not an
element. The following program (SpanClass.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
60 com/go/smashinghtml5) gives you an example of how you might use the class with the
<span> tag.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
background-color:#F93;
}
.highlight {
background-color:yellow;
}
div {
font-family:”Comic Sans MS”, cursive;
font-size:18px;
}
h1 {
color:#930;
text-align:center;
font-size:20px;
}
</style>
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<title>Halloween Highlight</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Halloween Party!</h1>
<div>You are invited to a Halloween Party on <span class=”highlight”>Saturday,
October 29</span>. Costumes are <span class=”highlight”><i>de rigueur</i></span>.</
div>
</body>
</html>
When you test the program, you’ll see that the two portions of the text within the <span>
containers are affected. Figure 3-13 shows how they’re displayed in a Chrome browser on a
Mac (top) and an Opera Mini browser on an iPhone (bottom).
Mobile phone
61
Desktop computer
Figure 3-13: Class defined style in <span> container on desktop computer (top) and mobile device (bottom).
Both displays clearly show that the CSS3 class named highlight is working fine. However,
the Opera Mini browser displays neither the defined fonts nor the italicized words. (The Safari
browser does display the italicized words, but not the defined fonts.)
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CSS3 IDs
A CSS3 ID is set up almost exactly like a class except that it uses a pound sign (#) instead of a
dot (.) in the definition. Further, in assigning an ID, you use ID instead of class to specify
which ID to use with an element. You even can use IDs and classes with the same element.
The following tag is perfectly correct:
<p ID=”this” class=”that”>
Both can select styles, and the ID provides a unique ID for the paragraph.
The ID has some major differences from a class. Both a class and an ID can be used as style
sheet selectors. However, an ID has some other limitations and features:
An ID can be used only once in a document.

An ID can serve as an anchor (see Chapter 7).
An ID can act as a script reference. That’s important for JavaScript.
An ID can be used as a name in a declared object element — more stuff from JavaScript.
An ID can be used by agents for processing information in translating an HTML
document.
Of these features, you’ll be using only the first two until you decide to incorporate JavaScript
62 and other languages into your résumé. Nevertheless, if you pay attention to these differences,
your Web pages won’t run into problems later on (and others will think you’re a pro). The
following example (IDwork.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows a use of the ID with CSS3:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
#littleHead {
background-color:#9FC;
font-size:16px;
}
#javascript {
/* red */
color:#cc0000;
}
#php {
/* blue */
color:#009;
}
#actionscript {
/* green */
color:#063;
}
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</style>
<title>Using IDs</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id=”littleHead”>Everything you always wanted<br>
to know about variables:</div>
<p id=”javascript”> JavaScript variables do not have to be given a data type.</p>
<p id=”php”> PHP variables can be nudged toward a data type with type hinting.</p>
<p id=”actionscript”> ActionScript variables must be assigned a data type.</p>
</body>
</html>
In looking at that code, you may have wondered what the slash-asterisk (/* ... */) marks are.
Quite simply, they’re comment code for CSS3. Within a <style> container and in external
style sheets, they work just like the  comment marks in HTML5. Figure 3-14
shows what you’ll see when you test it.
63
Figure 3-14: IDs in a Web page.
If you have a long Web page with discussions about JavaScript, PHP, and ActionScript, the
user may have to scroll down to find the topic he wants. Using IDs, you can write the URL to
include the exact paragraph the user is trying to find. For example, the following URL will go
directly to the paragraph covering PHP: www.smashingHTML5.com/myIDs#php. The
added #php calls the specific paragraph with the php ID.
TAKE THE WHEEL

This chapter has covered a lot of material, and you’ll want to see what you can do with it. Here
are two challenges:
You can design better than that! After starting a Web page using different h elements,
the page that resulted in what you see in Figure 3-4 still needs help. For a kid’s page, it’s
not too colorful and the font is boring. Besides, the text is right next to the image. Using
CSS3, see if you can make it better.
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Help poor Wittenstein! After ducking bullets in World War I while preparing Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus, our Web page in Figure 3-6 shows Wittenstein’s work without the
indents! However, using CSS3 and the margin-left property, see if you can fix those h
elements so that all the elements are there. By the way, if you want all 29 pages of Tracta-
tus Logico-Philosophicus, you can download it for free at http://filepedia.org/
tractatus-logico-philosophicus.
Have some fun with this and see the flexibility that CSS3 gives you.
64
07_977279-ch03.indd 64 10/28/10 9:53 PM

SMASHING HTML5
4
CHAPTER
4 WORKING WITH
COLOR VALUES
UP TO THIS point, you’ve seen several examples color names are used, but other than the basic
of using color codes, but unless you understand colors, you need to understand how colors are
what you’re looking at, you may as well be constructed in CSS3. By doing so, you have
looking at the enigma code. In some examples, access to millions of colors rather than a handful.
08_977279-ch04.indd 65 10/28/10 9:52 PM

UNDERSTANDING RGB COLOR

If you’ve ever mixed colors in anything from finger paints to a watercolor set, you have a sense
of what happens when you mix colors. For computer screens, red, green and blue lights are
mixed to generate different colors. For example, if you mix equal amounts of red and green,
you get yellow.
To mix colors for Web pages, different values are mixed using integers, percentages, and
hexadecimal numbers. CSS3 also has a limited number of named colors available that can
help while figuring out the other color-mixing methods. HTML5 and CSS3 have some very
sophisticated elements such as canvas that can do more with color and drawings than has
been possible in previous versions of HTML. These advanced elements require a bit of
JavaScript, and you’ll find them discussed in detail in Chapter 13. For now, we’ll get started
with the basics.
USING NAMES
One of the stranger experiences in working with HTML5 and CSS3 is the name set used with
colors. At the root are the 16 standard colors shown in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Standard Color Names

Aqua Black Blue Fuchsia
66 Gray Green Lime Maroon
Navy Olive Purple Red
Silver Teal White Yellow
Using the HTML5 that you’ve learned so far, you can easily create a chart showing all the
colors. (In the “Take the Wheel” section at the end of this chapter, you’ll work out how to
re-create the table.) Figure 4-1 shows what they look like on a Web page on a mobile device.
Figure 4-1: The standard CSS3 colors in a Web page.
From this root base, you can include another 131 names that seem to have no rhyme or
reason in terms of why they were selected. They’re all part of a set created back in the 1980s
called X11. They were adopted in the early browsers and have been with us ever since. In the
official W3C documentation, they’re listed under Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and all the
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CHAPTER 4: WORKING WITH COLOR VALUES
names were adopted from the original X11. (See www.w3.org/TR/SVG/types.

html#ColorKeywords.)
The reason that all the names haven’t been listed here is because designers and developers
generally don’t use them. For designers, not only do the 131 names severely limit their palette,
but the ones selected are nuts! Colors like papayawhip and mistyrose are hardly standard
names for artists. Likewise, for developers, the values used don’t conform to any mathematical
set such as the old Web-safe colors that follow a logical numeric standard. (Of course, if you
want to have some fun, go ahead and include darkkhaki and ghostwhite in your Web page’s
color palette.) In the next sections, you’ll see how to create the exact color you want from over
a million possible combinations.
RGB AND HSL PERCENTAGES

In mixing paint colors, the amount of paint is sometimes listed in percentages. A certain
percent of red, green, and blue will give different colors. In setting colors in CSS3, you can use
percentages in two different ways. First, you can assign a color value using the following
format:
rgb(r%,g%,b%);
The first value is the percent red; the second, green; and the third, blue. For example, the
setting, rgb(43.9%,50.2%,56.5%) generates the color that the Los Angeles Dodgers use.
The three percentage values add up to more than 100 percent, so you know that the percent- 67
age is a percent of the color itself and not the total. As you can see, you can be very precise for
values, including fractions of percentages. The following script (RGBpercent.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how to use this color
assignment in an HTML5 page:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
background-color:rgb(43.9%,50.2%,56.5%);
}
h1 {
background-color:rgb(11.8%,56.5%,100%);
color:rgb(100%,100%,100%);
font-style:italic;
text-align:center;
}
</style>
<title>Dodger Blue</title>
</head>
<body>
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<h1>Los Angeles Dodgers<br>

(Formerly of Brooklyn)</h1>
</body>
</html>
When you launch the page, the colors come out precisely as you instructed, as shown in
Figure 4-2.
Figure 4-2: Setting colors with RGB percentages.
68 A second way to assign colors using percentages is to use a hue-saturation-light (HSL) model.
The big advantage of HSL is that lightness is symmetrical. That makes it easier to tweak a
color to what you’d like it to be.
By thinking of a color circle arranged around 360 degrees like a compass, you select a hue. At
the top, or 0 percent, you find the reds. Moving clockwise, at 30 percent the hues turn
red-yellow. At 60 percent, they’re yellow. And so on around the color spectrum until you’re at
360 percent (0 percent) where you’re back to the red hues. For designers who understand the
color spectrum, this makes choosing colors much easier. To create a lighter color, increase the
light value; decrease the light value to make the color darker. For example, suppose you’re
trying to get just the right shade of red. You start with the following color assignment:
hsl(0,100%,50%);
Notice that the first value is not a percentage. That’s because it has values between 0 and
359 — the 360 degrees of a circle. (Remember: 0 and 360 are the same point on the circle.)
By raising and lowering the light (the third parameter), you can make your color lighter or
darker — which is far more intuitive than changing RGB percentages. The following
HTML5/CSS3 script (HSLColor.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how easy it is to lower and raise the light value to get just the right
shade of red.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
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.redBase {
color:hsl(0, 100%, 50%);
}
.redDarker {
color:hsl(0, 100%, 25%);
}
.redLighter {
color:hsl(0, 100%, 75%);
}
</style>
<title>HSL Color Assignment</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class=”redBase”>Red Base</h1>
<h1 class=”redDarker”>Red Darker</h1>
<h1 class=”redLighter”>Red Lighter</h1>
</body>
</html>
When first using HSL, it helps to think of adding light by going higher to the sun or making it
darker by going lower into a well. The tweaking process is easier for designers to get just what
they want. Figure 4-3 shows what the different red tints look like.
69
Figure 4-3: HSL makes tweaking tints easy.
Hue and light are fairly intuitive to understand, but saturation can be a little murky. Essen-
tially, saturation is the amount of colorfulness in a given color. A 100 percent saturation is the
full colorfulness of a hue in a given light, while a lower percent subtracts from a hue — some-
thing like a color fading. For all colors, a midpoint light is going to be gray when saturation is
0 percent. Sometimes a faded or muted color is preferred, like blue jeans that have been
washed many times.
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RGB DECIMAL INTEGER SETTINGS

A second way of mixing your colors using the rgb() value assignment is to insert values from
0 to 255 (a total of 256 values because you count the 0), instead of the percentages used in the
earlier example. The value 256 represents the number of possible combinations on two 8-bit
bytes. In other words, it’s based on how a computer stores and processes information. With a
set of three values from 0 to 255, you can generate 16,777,216 combinations. However, color
technology is far more complex than we can possibly discuss here, and modern color process-
ing keeps generating better color processors. Suffice it to say, you can generate lots of colors
with those combinations of red, green, and blue. Here’s the format to assign a color value:
rgb(integerR, integerG, integerB);
For example, yellow, which mixes red and green would be
rgb(255,255,0);
It’s not as intuitive as HSL, but after a while, you start getting a sense of mixes based on 256
values rather than percentages. The following example (DecColor.html in this chapter’s
folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows a simple implementation.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
70
body {
/* Red background */
background-color:rgb(255,0,0);
}
h1 {
/* Big Yellow Text */
color:rgb(255,255,0);
}
h2 {
/*Blue Text + Gray Background */
color:rgb(0,0,255);
background-color:rgb(150,150,150);
}
</style>
<title>Decimal Colors</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1> Big Yellow Header</h1>
<h2> Blue header with a gray background</h2>
</body>
</html>
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The only difference between using RGB with values from 0 to 255 and 0 percent to 100
percent is in perception. You may be thinking that you can be more precise with your colors
using the 256 values instead of the 0-to-100 range of percentages, but that isn’t the case
because you can use fractions in percentage assignments. Whether you use the percentage
notation or the 0-to-255 notation really comes down to a matter of personal preference.
Figure 4-4 shows the outcome using the Opera Mini browser on an iPhone.
Figure 4-4: Colors mixed using integer values, shown on a mobile device.
As you can see in Figure 4-4, the mobile device is not picking up the Arial Black font, but it 71
has no problems with the colors. Be sure to check your mobile device for fonts and other
effects if they’re essential to how your page looks. Remember: Most computers have a far
more complete set of fonts and styles than mobile devices do. In time, though, they should be
very similar.
HEXADECIMAL SETTINGS: THINKING LIKE YOUR COMPUTER

In previous chapters, you’ve seen color assignment made using values made up of alphanu-
meric values. (An alphanumeric value is any value that contains both numbers and letters.)
For example, the value 6F001C generates a rich mocha red. If we break it down, we can see
that it, too, is simply a mixture of red, green, and blue. But to understand what’s going on, we
need to understand a little about computer numbering systems.
We’re used to counting using a decimal system. We use the values 0 through 9 (ten digits), and
once those ten digits are used up we start over with two digits — 1 and 0 — which we call
“ten.” As you may know, computers are based on switches being in an On state or an Off state.
By substituting a “1” for On and a “0” for Off, we can write a code based on a binary system
using 1s and 0s; so instead of having ten digits to work with, we have only two. Table 4.2
shows what it takes to count up to 16 using the binary system. It also includes a third column
that shows a base-16 numbering system called hexadecimal.
08_977279-ch04.indd 71 10/28/10 9:52 PM

Table 4.2 Numbering Systems

Binary Decimal Hexadecimal
0 0 0
1 1 1
10 2 2
11 3 3
100 4 4
101 5 5
110 6 6
111 7 7
1000 8 8
1001 9 9
1010 10 A
1011 11 B
1100 12 C
1101 13 D
72 1110 14 E
1111 15 F
Each of the binary values is called a bit. A group of bits is called a byte. In Table 4.2, the largest
binary value is a 4-bit byte. Computers are arranged in different types of bytes, and the 8-bit
byte is commonly used as a general reference to a byte. However, modern computers are
actually organized into 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-, and even 128-bit bytes. (They just keep getting bigger,
so don’t expect 128-bit bytes to be the top limit.)
The highest value for a binary counting system in an 8-bit byte is 11111111. When you look at
that compared with decimal and hexadecimal numbers, you see a very interesting pattern, as
shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Byte Values

Binary Decimal Hexidecimal
11111111 255 FF
As you can see in Table 4-3, the hexadecimal value FF is the highest possible value for two
digits; similarly, the binary value 11111111 is the highest possible value for eight digits (a
byte). However, the decimal number is three digits and does not represent a limit for those
digits. In other words, the decimal system isn’t very symmetrical with the binary counting
system, but the hexadecimal system is.
08_977279-ch04.indd 72 10/28/10 9:52 PM

As you know, the RGB system of assigning integers to color values uses values from 0 to 255.
Using hexadecimal values, you need only two digits (actually, hexadecimal integers) to
represent all 256 values in an 8-bit byte. It’s neater.
This leads to using hexadecimal integers in assigning color values. Using six values — two
each for red, green, and blue — all the color values can be assigned using six hex integers. So
returning to the value 6F001C, we can see the following:
Red: 6F
Blue: 00
Green: 1C
Getting used to hexadecimal can take some time, but once you do, it’s easy to add color values
with them. Also, you can understand them in the same way as RGB decimal integers, but
instead of values of 0 to 255, you use 00 to FF. The following example (HexPalette.html
in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows some color using
hexadecimals.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* Palette -- only use these colors! 73
69675C, 69623D, ECE8CF, E8D986, B5AA69
gray, olive, cream, dark cream, khaki */
body {
background-color:#ECE8CF;
color:#69675C;
}
h1 {
color:#B5aa60;
background-color:#E8D986;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
color:#b5aa69;
}
</style>
<title>Hexadecimal with Palette</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1> Style with a Color Palette</h1>
<h2> Desert in the Fall</h2>
In the fall, when the air cools a bit, the desert begins to settle down and cloak
08_977279-ch04.indd 73 10/28/10 9:52 PM

itself in a warmer set of hues.

</body>
</html>
This example uses a color palette and simply places the color values in a comment within the
<style> container so that it can be viewed while putting the Web page together. Figure 4-5
shows what you can expect to see.
Figure 4-5: A hexadecimal color palette.
74 The colors belong to a set of colors that create a certain mood or feeling. This one, “Desert in
the Fall” was based on what the designer believed to be a palette representing that time of year
in the desert.
ADDING TRANSPARENCY TO COLOR

One of the new features you can see on an HTML5-compliant browser is transparency, or
variable opacity. A fully opaque object on the screen blocks whatever is beneath it, while a
fully transparent object allows anything beneath it to be fully seen — like glass. The value
used to describe the level of opacity is expressed in an alpha property set between 0 and 1.
Using either the RGB or HSL color formatting, the alpha is the fourth parameter. (Unfortu-
nately, there is no hexadecimal alpha parameter in CSS3.) For example, rgba(255,0,0,
0.5) generates red with 50 percent opacity. Likewise, hsla(120, 100%, 50%, 0.3)
creates green with 30 percent opacity (or 70 percent transparency).
In Part IV of this book, I discuss ways to add depth to your page with the <canvas> tag so
that when you stack objects on top of one another, you can better see why having some
transparency in your creations is important. For now, though, you need something that you
can place beneath text blocks that can be viewed through a transparent text block. The easiest
method is to place a background object using the background-image property. The
following code snippet shows how:
body { background-image:url(imageFile.png); }
08_977279-ch04.indd 74 10/28/10 9:52 PM

You can use any .jpg, .gif, or .png file for a background image. For this example, three
circles in the colors red, green, and blue are used as a background and on top are <h1> text
with 50 percent opacity to show the effect that different colors have when viewed through a
transparent object. The following code (Transparent.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) uses both rgba() and hsla() formats.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
background-image:url(rgbBalls.png);
}
.transRed {
color:rgba(255, 0, 0, .5);
}
.transGreen {
color:rgba(0, 255, 0, .5);
}
.transBlue {
color:hsla(240, 100%, 50%, .5);
}
.transBackground
{
background-color:hsla(120, 100%, 50%, .5); 75
}
</style>
<title>Transparency/Opacity</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class=”transRed”>Testing 123, Testing 123, Testing 123</h1>
<h1 class=”transGreen”>Testing 123, Testing 123, Testing 123</h1>
<h1 class=”transBlue”>Testing 123, Testing 123, Testing 123</h1>
<h1 class=”transBackground”>Testing 123, Testing 123, Testing 123</h1>
</body>
</html>
The results shown in Figure 4-6 are shown on an iPhone and they look no different than what
you’ll see on your a computer screen.
As you can see, the transparent text and background allow the background object to show
through. When a color is transparent, it picks up some of the underlying color; so, when you
use it, bear in mind what the combination of the underlying and overlying colors look like
together. (By the way, Figure 4-6 shows why you rarely want to use background images — they
have a way of cluttering the screen and destroying any sensibility in the text.)
08_977279-ch04.indd 75 10/28/10 9:52 PM

Figure 4-6: Transparent text over solid graphics.
CREATING A COLOR SCHEME

If you’re a designer, you may be thinking, “How on earth am I ever going to get the colors I
want with all these numbers?” If you’re a developer, you may wonder, “How can I know if the
colors I use go together?” Both of these questions have the same answer: Kuler. Kuler is a site
where you can enter a key color (base color) and, using different algorithms, Kuler works out
which colors are compatible and presents the information for decimal and hexadecimal color
76 values. Designers can put in any colors they want to use in creating their own color schemes
and Kuler generates all the math; developers can put in the math, and Kuler generates color
schemes.
You can find Kuler at http://kuler.adobe.com. It requires a Flash plug-in (which is

already built into most browsers), but if your browser doesn’t have one you can get it for free
at www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer. You can also download a Kuler widget
that works on your desktop.
FROM A BASE COLOR

To create a color scheme with Kuler, you begin with a base color and try it out with different
algorithms to generate color schemes. Then you select an algorithm to show different ways
that colors look good together. Based on color theory, you choose from analogous, mono-
chromatic, triad, complementary, compound, shades, or custom. The custom category is for
designers who use their artistic skills to generate a palette. (Developers are well served by one
of the automatic algorithms.) Figure 4-7 shows a typical example of a color scheme centered
on a base color using the triad algorithm.
FROM AN IMAGE
In addition to creating a color palette from a base color, you also can load an image, and Kuler
automatically generates a color scheme based on the image’s color. For example, Figure 4-8
shows two different images — a logo and a painting — with their respective color palettes.
08_977279-ch04.indd 76 10/28/10 9:52 PM

Figure 4-7: A color scheme with base color.

77
Figure 4-8: Color schemes based on imported images.
08_977279-ch04.indd 77 10/28/10 9:52 PM

Bad color combinations

In order to see the difference between using a good color scheme and a bad one, we’ll look at an
example. Leslie Cabarga’s book The Designer’s Guide to Color Combinations contains a chapter on
bad color. The following figure shows what two identical Web pages shown in a mobile device look
like with a color scheme based on a photo and one using an example of bad color from Cabarga’s
book.
78
Good and bad color.
The figure on the left uses colors picked up from the photo, and the one on the right does not — plus,
it’s just a bad combination.
When using an image, you can further modify the color scheme by selecting from several
moods — colorful, bright, muted, deep, and dark. All color schemes can be saved and when
loaded, they maintain all the information you need for entering color data into an HTML5
Web page.
INTEGRATING YOUR COLOR PALETTE WITH

YOUR WEB PAGE
Having a color palette doesn’t mean that your page will look good — even color-wise. Within
the same palette, some colors go together better than others. For example, a midtone
08_977279-ch04.indd 78 10/28/10 9:52 PM

background may not provide the contrast you need for other midtone colors, so a dark or
light color in the palette may be a better choice. Figure 4-9 shows the color palette developed
around a logo that will be used as the page’s palette.
Figure 4-9: A logo-based color palette.
The hexadecimal integer values for the four colors are pasted right in with the CSS3 at the top
of the HTML5 page for reference. The following script (ColorsPhoto.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) employs the colors so that they
work with the logo and rest of the page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* 027333,7FA646,D9B448,F2DFA7 */
body {
margin-left:1em;
background-color:#F2DFA7;
color:#027333;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; 79
font-size:11px;
}
h1 {
color:#7FA646;
}
h2 {
color:#7FA646;
background-color:#D9B448;
}
div
{
text-align:center;
}
a {
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-align:center;
font-size:10px;
text-decoration:none;
color:#F2DFA7;
}
a:hover {
color:#D9B448;
08_977279-ch04.indd 79 10/28/10 9:52 PM

}
</style>
<title>Arranging Colors</title>
</head>
<body>
<div><nav>
<a href=”#”> Link 1 | </a>
<a href=”#”> Link 2 | </a>
<a href=”#”> Link 3 </a>
</nav> </div>
<img src=”Sandlightlogo.gif” alt=”Logo” align=”left”>
<header><h1> Welcome</h1></header>
<br><br>
<article>
<h2> We are all about...</h2>
Sandlight Productions is an international development company that specializes in
HTML5/CSS3, streaming video, mobile device development, online education, Action-
Script 3.0 architecture, Flash, and PHP.
</article>
<br>
<footer><div>
<nav>
<a href=”#”> Link 1 | </a>
80 <a href=”#”> Link 2 | </a>
<a href=”#”> Link 3 </a>
</nav>
</div></footer>
</body>
</html>
The CSS3 script uses the property a:hover to change the property when the mouse is over
the link. In the <a> tag CSS3 definition, the text-decoration is set to none, which
means that the text link will not be underlined. Without the underline, you want to do
something to alert the user to the presence of a link; you do that using the hover property.
Changing the color of the link text subtly yet effectively shows the user that the mouse is over
the link. Both the initial color and the hover color are part of the palette. So, in setting up the
page, remember that more than just the <body> and <h> tags use the color palette.
This particular design is focused on mobile devices (see the right side of Figure 4-10), but it
should work with computer and table screen as well (see the left side of Figure 4-10).
Of course, your page is always going to look better if you have a Web designer do the page
design. However, even developers can make it look better by paying attention to the color
combinations.
08_977279-ch04.indd 80 10/28/10 9:53 PM

Figure 4-10: A color scheme applied to a page.

81
TAKE THE WHEEL
The following two challenges should be fun, and you’ll learn a lot from doing them both:
Reproducing the standard color chart: In Figure 4-1 is an image with the standard
colors. Your first challenge is to see if you can reproduce the Web page that displays those
colors. Here are a couple hints to get started:
• Define each named color as a class in your <style> container with the same color
for the text and background colors.
.aqua { color:aqua; background-color:aqua; }
• One way to do this is to use the <span> tag to assign classes to the content of the
<span> container.
<h3> <span class=aqua>COLORNAME</span><span class=black>COLORNAME
</span><span class=blue>COLORNAME</span><span class=fuchsia>COLORNAME
</span> <h3>
Your picture belongs on a Web page! This is a three-part task:
1. Make a digital image of yourself using the built-in camera on your computer or
upload one from a digital camera.
2. Load the image into Kuler and create a color palette.
3. Create a Web page with your picture using the color palette you created in Kuler.
08_977279-ch04.indd 81 10/28/10 9:53 PM

08_977279-ch04.indd 82 10/28/10 9:53 PM
II
PART
II PAGES, SITES,
AND DESIGNS
Chapter 5: Organizing a Page

Chapter 6: Displaying Data with Tables
Chapter 7: All about Links
Chapter 8: Navigation Strategies
09_977279-pp02.indd 83 10/28/10 10:16 PM

09_977279-pp02.indd 84 10/28/10 10:16 PM
SMASHING HTML5
5
CHAPTER
5 ORGANIZING
A PAGE
MANY OF THE new tags in HTML5 are organizational elements become clear only once
organizational tags. In previous chapters some you start using JavaScript, but if you set up your
have been used but not really explained. This page according to HTML5 guidelines, your page
chapter looks closely at organizing HTML5 pages will be good to go when you start adding a little
with the help of CSS3 and a way of understand- JavaScript.
ing this organizational process. Some of the
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THE TOP OF THE HTML5 DOCUMENT

The first four chapters of this book explain much of how the information above the <body>
tag is put to use. The code above the <body> tag adds no content to the Web page, but it
influences how the page appears and informs the browser that it’s a Web page and what kind
of Web page it is. Figure 5-1 shows the general organization of the first part of the Web page.
Figure 5-1: Organizing the top of a Web page.

86
The <html> tag is the root element, and within that element, you can include a language
attribute. Then within the <head> container are metadata elements. Also in the <head>
container are the scripting elements; they, too, are briefly covered in this section and
expanded upon in Part IV of this book.
Other than the CSS3 scripts, the examples so far have not put a lot of tags into the head of
the HTML5 document. The <meta> tag has many uses, but so far, we’ve used it only to
specify the character set. This chapter shows more uses for the <meta> tag.
SETTING YOUR HOME BASE

Within the typical Web site, you’re likely to have several different pages to which your page
will link. In fact, the typical Web site is arranged as a navigation system that links different
pages. If you set a <base> tag in the head of your page with a link to a URL, you can
reference other pages relative to the base page. For example, the following two scripts
(Base.html and FirstBase.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) have links to one another, but they’re relative to the base that is set in
the head container.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html><head>
<base href=”http://www.sandlight.com/html5/smashing/ “>
body {
10_977279-ch05.indd 86 10/28/10 10:16 PM

CHAPTER 5: ORGANIZING A PAGE
background-color:#FCC;
}
</style>
<title>Home Base</title></head>
<body>
<h1>This Is the Home Base</h1>
<a href=”FirstBase.html”>First Base</a>
</body></html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html><head>
<base href=”http://www.sandlight.com/html5/smashing/ “>
body {
background-color:#FC0;
}
</style>
<title>First Base</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This Is First Base</h1>
<a href=”Base.html”>Home Base</a>
</body>
</html>
87
What is happening here? The <base> tag is telling your browser how to resolve any refer-
ences to other documents in your HTML — such as the <a href=”Base.html”> anchor
tag. Your browser will know to look for the Base.html document in the location specified
in the <base> tag; namely, http://www.sandlight.com/html5/smashing/.
ADDING CHARACTER TO YOUR SITE WITH METADATA

To this point, we’ve used the <meta> tag to establish that your site uses the UTF-8 character
set, but the meta element can do much more. Think of the meta element as the one that
performs multitasks. One of the most important attributes of the meta element is the name
and contents pair. With the name attribute set to keywords, you can specify the
contents on your site. In this way, the search engines can find your site when people are
trying to find your products or services — or just the topics you’d like to include on your Web
pages. For example, suppose your site has links to blogs and other sites on topics about dog
kennels. Your meta tag would look something like this:
<meta name=”keywords” content=”kennels, dog fences, pet containment”>
Each of the content values must be separated by a comma. These tokens can be directly
related to your content or what someone might look for. Content meta tags are easy to set and
you can help users find their way to your site.
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One other <meta> tag attribute that’s very cool is http-equiv set in the Refresh state.
Using this attribute, you can automatically refresh a page or even change HTML pages. For
example, you could have part of your site have an automatic slide show to display photos of a
party or friends in a club. The tag format for using the Refresh state is:
<meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”[secs]”>
For example, the following tag refreshes (reloads) the page every 30 seconds:
<meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”30”>
Not only can you reload the same page, but you can reload different pages. If you want to load
a sequence of pages, you can set the initial meta tag set as follows, to set the page assigned as a
URL value after 1⁄2 second:
<meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”.5; URL=pg2.html”>
Notice how the content value of both the number of seconds and the URL are in the same set
of quotation marks. The following HTML5 code launches a series of pages that keep refresh-
ing until a home page is loaded:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
88 <head>
<meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”.5; URL=pg2.html”>
<title>Image 1</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src=”one.png” alt=”one”>
</body>
</html>
After the initial page, you would have the following sequence — only one per page:
Page 2: <meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”.5; URL=pg3.html”>

Page 5: <meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”.5; URL=homeNow.
html”>
The home page, homeNow.html, would have no Refresh state in the <meta> tag. In fact,
other than the meta element with the Content-Type, it would have no other meta tag. (This
thing would go on forever if you looped the home page back to the first page!)
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KNOWING WHEN YOU NEED A SCRIPT

The more you use HTML5, the more you need a script to get the most out of your Web pages.
The most common scripting language used with HTML5 is JavaScript. Your browser has an
interpreter for JavaScript just as it does for HTML5. Fortunately, JavaScript is easy to learn
and can work in small snippets — even non-developers can do it.
To include JavaScript, all you need to do is to add a little script to the head of your page. Here’s
the tag format:
<script type=”text/javascript”>
The JavaScript program goes into the remainder of the <script> container. The following
HTML5 code (ScriptTag.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how easy JavaScript is to learn.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
alert(“I can do JavaScript!”);
</script>
<title>A Taste of JavaScript</title>
</head> 89
<body>
A regular Web page....
</body>
</html>
When you test that little program, you’ll see an alert box pop up (shown in Figure 5-2).
Figure 5-2: A JavaScript alert window.
As a side note, you’ll see that the JavaScript alert window is loaded before your Web page
loads. That’s because everything in the head container loads first. If you have a more elaborate
JavaScript program that will be used in your HTML5 page, you’ll want to test it on different
browsers and also put it in an external JavaScript file. Figure 5-3 shows the same alert window
in Safari on an iPhone; you can clearly see that the Web page associated with the HTML5
code has not loaded.
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As soon as the user clicks OK, the Web page loads. In the meantime, you can see the files
from the directory in the background on your mobile device. Additionally, notice that the
alert window shows the domain where the JavaScript resides. Some browsers, such as Google’s
Chrome, first check to see if the user wants to accept the JavaScript from the named site
before it shows the actual alert (a double alert!).
90
Figure 5-3: Alert window loading before Web page.
As with style sheets, JavaScript programs can be loaded from external files. However, instead
of using the link element, the JavaScript files are loaded using the script element, as the
following example shows:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”smashingJS.js”></script>
The JavaScript file is saved using the .js extension, just as CSS3 files are saved using the .css
extension.
You’ll see JavaScript is employed a good deal when using the <canvas> tag and several other
HTML5 tags in Part IV of this book. Further, <script> tags and the JavaScript code in them
can be added right in the middle of an HTML5 script. The advantage of placing your JavaScript
in the head container, though, is that it’s loaded first, before the Web page.
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A DESIGN IN SECTIONS
One of the major changes in HTML5 compared with older HTML versions is in the sections.
Prior to HTML5, you could pretty well think of sections in terms of the body element and
some <h> tags. In HTML5, a page can be envisioned in terms of a number of sections with
subsections. A larger context in a Web page is an article, and just like an article in a
magazine, you can find different sections that constitute the building blocks of the article.
Figure 5-4 provides an overview of the sections in an HTML5 page.
91
Figure 5-4: Some sections that make up a page.
In looking at Figure 5-4, you can see different blocks of information, but the tags used
generally don’t have any inherent capacity to structure the information visually. The <h> tags,
which are section elements, certainly configure text to different sizes. However, the other
section tags are as much for helping to organize a page as they are for specifying the visual
display of the page.
The section elements include the following:
Body
Section
Nav
Article
Aside
H1 . . . H6
Hgroup
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Header
Footer
Address
The body element is the sectioning root just as the html element is the page root. Through-
out the previous chapters, you’ve seen several of the section elements, so you’re familiar with
them. However, a script helps to see how they’re used in conjunction and consider their uses
(ArticleStructure.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Sections</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Pilots and Planes</h1>
<p><q>I never left one up there. </q><i>Ace Davis</i></p>
</header>
<nav><a href=”#”> Safety</a> | <a href=”#”>Check Lists</a> | <a
href=”#”>Landings</a></nav>
92 <section>
<h2>Flying Stories by Real Pilots</h2>
<h3>...and other cures for insomnia.</h3>
<section>
<h4>Short Final</h4>
<p>As we were on short final, control cleared the Maule for immediate takeoff,
which it did in about 15 feet of runway at an airspeed of 20 mph. It filled my
windshield as I approached stall speed. After realizing its mistake, the tower
instructed the Maule to loop, and we were able to land without incident.</p>
</section>
<section>
<h4>Thermal on Takeoff</h4>
<p>Taking off from Gila Bend, Arizona, with the ambient temperature of 130 F,
we encountered a strong thermal at the end of the runway, which took our Cessna
177b to 15,000 feet in 12 seconds flat, at which time we leveled off and proceeded
to New Mexico via the jet stream, setting a new speed record.</p>
</section>
</section>
<aside>
<h2>Truthful Pilot Found!</h2>
<p>Emily Rudders, a pilot in Moose Bite, Vermont, was recently found to be the
only truthful pilot in existence. When asked to relate her most exciting flying
adventure, Emily replied, <q>I ain’t never flew no airplane. I jus’ shoot at ‘em
when they fly over and bother the moose.</q></p>
</aside>
<footer>
<address>
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Contact us at:<a href=”www.aopa.org”>AOPA</a>

</address>
</footer>
</article>
</body>
</html>
The purpose of sections is to divide the page into coherent parts. They’re an organizational set
of elements, and while they can be used for formatting, that isn’t their main purpose. For
adding formatting to a paragraph or group of paragraphs, the W3C Standards encourage the
use of the <div> tag.
Figure 5-5 shows what the page looks like. Although it isn’t an attractive design, it is a
functional one. The article is about pilots and flying. The article’s header announces the topic
(pilots and planes) and provides a quote from a pilot using a <q> tag. After the header, the
first section is about flying stories. Nested within the first section are two other <section>
tags that separate out the two stories.
A somewhat related section about the veracity of pilot stories is placed in a separate aside
element container. In Figure 5-4, you may have noticed that the aside was placed in a separate
column, but in and of itself, an aside element is a reference to the sense of the page. It is not
a formatting element as such.
93
Figure 5-5: A page organized with section elements.
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Why you really should pay attention to the section

organization
You may be thinking that you can get a page up and running without the hassle of the section tags.
That’s true. However, under the hood of your mild-mannered Web page is a rumbling engine that can
reference different parts of your page. Known as the Document Object Model (DOM), the different
groupings you have set up using the section elements can be addressed as different objects and
children of objects in a well-ordered stream of data coursing over the Internet. By paying attention to
the organizational model used in HTML5, your Web page will be happy, the Internet will be happy,
and the galaxy will be happy.
Finally, at the bottom of the article is a footer. Footer elements can go anywhere, including
inside individual section and aside element containers. Footers act as a closing organiza-
tional element for the section elements. Within the footer is an address element with a link
to a URL related to the article.
In looking at the page in Figure 5-5 and the code, you can see the sense of the page described
in the section tags. As noted, they’re really not for formatting but for organizing the sense of
the page.
94
GETTING YOUR STUFF ORGANIZED
Once you have a general organizational plan, you want to arrange your content within the
different sections. In Figure 5-4, you saw that several of the section elements contained
grouping elements, such as the <p> tags. Grouping elements are a preferred place for adding
your CSS3 styles; section elements are not. In this section, you’ll find the major elements to
help you organize your materials.
PARAGRAPHS, DIVISIONS, AND LISTS

The <p> and <div> tags used to be the workhorses of HTML pages for both grouping and
styling. Both are still important, but you must remember that their job is no longer one of
sectioning material on your page. Instead, think of both of these tags as grouping parts of a
section. For example, the following code snippet shows the old way of using these two tags:
<div>
<h1>All About Important Stuff</h1>
<p>
<h2>Finding True Love</h2>
</p>
<p>
<h2>Choosing the Right Career</h2>
</p>
<p>
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<h2>Getting a Parking Place</h2>

</p>
</div>
That code works perfectly well in HTML5, but it’s better organized using the most specific
element for the job. A better code would look like the following:
<header>
<h1>All About Important Stuff</h1>
</header>
<section>
<h2>Finding True Love</h2>
<h2>Choosing the Right Career</h2>
<h2>Getting a Parking Place</h2>
</section>
On your Web page, they look the same, but with HTML5 you’ll find your pages more sensible
using the new section elements.
So the question is, “Where can the p and div elements be used?” Actually, you don’t want to
rely on either very much. However, when you want to add a style element or some other
attribute in the middle of an <article> or <section>, they can be handy. Consider
the following (UseDiv.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5).
95
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
color:#0C6;
background-color:#FFC;
}
.girls {
background-color:pink;
}
.boys {
background-color:powderblue;
}
</style>
<title>Baby Names</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Baby Names</h1>
</header>
<section>
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<div class=”girls”>
<h2> Girls</h2>
<ul>
<li>Olivia</li>
<li>Tess</li>
<li>Emily</li>
</ul>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<div class=”boys”>
<h2> Boys</h2>
<ul>
<li>Jacob</li>
<li>Ricky</li>
<li>John</li>
</ul>
</div>
</section>
</body>
</html>
Figure 5-6 shows the output, but the important point is that the <div> tag was employed
only to provide the background colors for two different <section> elements.
96
Figure 5-6: Using the <div> tag for styling.
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As you can see in the listing, the div element allowed two different background styles in the
section containers without having to add classes to the <section> tag. Overall, though,
keep in mind that both <p> and <div> are more generalized elements, and at all times, you
should use elements that are the most descriptive of your object on the Web page.
Besides grouping and styling using the <div> tag, lists also serve to outline data. HTML5 still
uses the <ul> tags to group baby names for boys and girls. However, a subtle yet important
difference is built into ordered (<ol>) and unordered lists (<ul>).
The use of unordered or ordered lists depends on the context. For example, in the 2010
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in South Africa, four of
the teams competing for the championship were Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Uruguay.
If you were listing them at the beginning of the competition, you might use an unordered list.
At the end of the competition, you may want to use an ordered list to show the final results.
The following Web page (ol_ul.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) reflects the different groupings depending on the context and the mean-
ing that accompanies the context.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*20268C,0C080C,2F8C2B,F27507,F20505 */
body { 97
background-color:#2F8C2B;
color:#0C080C;
}
h2 {
color:#20268C;
}
h3 {
}
ol {
}
ul {
}
</style>
<title>Ordered and Unordered</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2> World Cup 2010</h2>
<h3>Beginning</h3>
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<ul>
<li>Spain</li>
<li>Netherlands</li>
<li>Germany</li>
<li>Uruguay</li>
</ul>
<h3>End</h3>
<ol>
<li>Spain</li>
<li>Netherlands</li>
<li>Germany</li>
<li>Uruguay</li>
</ol>
</body>
</html>
As you can see in Figure 5-7, the meaning of the group at the beginning of the World Cup has
no hierarchy — the list is just four teams at the World Cup. However, at the end, the order
means everything, so the ordered list element is more appropriate.
98
Figure 5-7: Ordered and unordered lists convey different meanings.
You may also note that the two different kinds of lists have different background colors added
with CSS3. So when using grouping elements, you might also want to further group the
content using color, as shown in both Figures 5-6 and 5-7.
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GROUPING WITHOUT FRACTURING

One of the grouping elements that you probably shouldn’t use for more than grouping the
head from the rest of the page (if even that) is the <hr> tag. The hr element (horizontal rule)
is simply a line, but it should be used judiciously and sparsely. Take for example, the following
excerpt from the poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
99
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
The three stanzas are divided by a simple double space, as is the title. However, if <hr> tags
are inserted, as in the following listing (HR.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5), you’ll see a quite different result in terms of an integrated sense
of the poem.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*A1A680,D9D7BA,D90404,8C0303,590202 */
body {
background-color:#A1A680;
color:#590202;
font-family:”Palatino Linotype”, “Book Antiqua”, Palatino, serif;
font-size:8px;
}
h4 {
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background-color:#D9D7BA;
color:#8C0303;
}
</style>
<title>Too many HRs</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h4> Kubla Khan</h4>
</header>
<article>
<hr>
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan<br>
A stately pleasure-dome decree:<br>
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran<br>
Through caverns measureless to man<br>
Down to a sunless sea.<br>
<hr>
So twice five miles of fertile ground<br>
With walls and towers were girdled round;<br>
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,<br>
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;<br>
And here were forests ancient as the hills,<br>
100 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.<br>
<hr>
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted<br>
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!<br>
A savage place! as holy and enchanted<br>
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted<br>
By woman wailing for her demon-lover! </article>
</body>
</html>
As you can see, the <hr> tags are all within the article element, while the title is part of
the header element. However, in Figure 5-8, the page is shown in a mobile device, and the
horizontal rules do nothing to clarify and everything to fragment.
Where your page has a major division, a horizontal rule may be appropriate. However, even
then you should add CSS3 to lighten the hr element so that it’s subtle — even adding trans-
parency will help. Good designers know how to use horizontal rules sparingly and subtly, but
non-designers can easily make a mess of their Web pages with overuse of <hr> tags.
FIGURES AND CAPTIONS

One of the more frustrating elements in HTML5 is the use of <figure> and <figcaption>
together. By placing a figcaption element inside of a figure element container, you might
assume that they form a single object for layout and design. The figcaption element is
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considered a child of the figure when the figcaption is nested inside of a figure
element. However, that doesn’t mean that they’ll appear on the page together. In fact, aligning
a figure with its caption can be tricky.
101
Figure 5-8: Horizontal rules can fragment meaning.
In more sophisticated CSS3 formatting, the figure and its caption can be treated as an object
with a parent-child relationship. Just because figure and figcaption are part of HTML5’s
grouping elements that doesn’t mean they’re formatted on the page together; instead, it means
that they can be referenced as a single flow in the main content of the page. In the meantime,
you’ll have to carefully work with the two elements together, as shown in the following
HTML5 program (Figure_n_caption.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5) where the caption references a stylized image.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* 732D3F,A66879,D9C3B0,260101,F2F2F2 */
body {
background-color:#D9C3B0;
color:#732D3F;
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font-size:11px;
}
aside {
margin-left:260px;
}
h1 {
background-color:#F2F2F2;
color:#A66879;
text-align:center;
}
figcaption {
color:#A66879;
}
img {
margin:5px;
}
</style>
<title>Figure and Caption Grouping</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
102 <h1>Memories of Baja</h1>
</header>
<article>
<figure> <img src=”PuntaBufeo250.png” alt=”Punta Bufeo”><br>
<figcaption> Landing Strip on the Beach in Punta Bufeo </figcaption>
</figure>
<section>
<p>Trips to the best places in Baja are accessible either by reinforced off-road
vehicles or small airplanes. The beaches are pristine, uncrowded, and uncluttered.
Fishing is most rewarding when the fish are cooked up in fish tacos—a delicacy not
to be missed. The <i>Sea of Cortez</i> (known also as the <i>Gulf of Baja</i> and
<i>Vermillion Sea</i>) is a bright and clear blue. Of course the beaches are
uncrowded and free of debris left by others.</p>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
You can begin to think about elements and their descendants. In this case, the figcaption
element is a descendant of the figure element. Figure 5-9 shows the caption under the
picture, both within the <figure> container.
As you can see clearly in Figure 5-9, the <figcaption> is differently styled, even though it’s
a descendant of the <figure> container. However, you can’t assume that a figcaption
element will be correctly positioned as in Figure 5-9 just because it’s a child of the figure
element that it captions.
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103
Figure 5-9: Figure and figcaption used with a graphic.
ORGANIZING FILES
With a simple Web site, the organization of the files is simple. As the complexity of a site
grows, especially if multiple designers and developers are involved, you need to get your site
organized in separate directories and even servers sometimes. In this section, you’ll learn
about several organizational issues and how to deal with file organization and access.
IMAGE ORGANIZATION AND REFERENCE

A typical Web site will have one or more folders (directories) dedicated to image files or types of
image files. In most of the examples so far in this book, the examples haven’t used separate
folders for images and the HTML5 pages that load them; instead all the image files are placed in
the same directory as the HTML5 files. With a large number of Web pages and images to load
into the pages, a more efficient ways to organize a site is to use separate folders for different
groupings of media. How you actually organize your images depends on several different
factors. The following are some possible directories and subdirectories that might be used:
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Formal Classifications (Animals > Mammals > Rodentia > Myomorpha >
Mus musculus > Mickey)
Topic (Vacations > Where to Go > Where to Stay > What to Pack)
Processes (Baking > Making Dough > Preparing Dough > Setting Oven > Timing)
Whatever organizational plan is implemented, you need to understand how to access the images
no matter how they’re organized. All references are either to absolute or relative addresses.
ABSOLUTE REFERENCE
Any reference to an image is through a URL, whether it’s a full listing of the address or one that
references just the name of the file. An absolute address begins with http:// and includes the
full path to the HTML5 file. For example, the following is an absolute address to a file:
http://www.smashinghtml5.com/organization/graphics/faces.html
No matter where that URL is called from, it recognizes it as the named file at the end of the
URL. The same is true with a source (src) reference to an image. If your code has the
following link, no matter where the calling Web page is located, it will load nose.png.
<img src=”http://www.smashinghtml5.com/organization/graphics/nose.png”>
104 The calling Web page could be on an entirely different server, and it would go to the absolute
address.
The advantage of using absolute addresses is that you don’t have to worry about where a page
is in your Web site. You don’t even have to worry if it’s on the same server. However, it leaves a
good deal to be desired in terms of site organization, and then there are those long URL
names you have to get just right.
RELATIVE REFERENCE
A relative reference is relative to the calling page’s position on a Web site or its defined base.
On your computer, your Web page has a file position rather than an http position. For
example, the following is the absolute position on the file somePage.html:
“file:///Macintosh HD/Users/billsanders/Desktop/HTML5/somePage.html”
If I have a graphic in the folder HTML5/, I can use its relative address to call it from
somePage.html. For example, if I have anyGraphic.png in the HTML5 folder I just use
the following relative reference:
<img src=”anyGraphic.png”>
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However, if I want to organize my images into a separate folder called images, inside the
HTML5 folder, I would use the relative address:
<img src=”images/anyGraphic.png”>
You can drill down as many relative levels as you want with each level separated by a forward
slash (/). For example, a more complex graphic set would look like the following:
<img src=”images/animals/dogs/greaterSwissMtDogs/myDoggy.png”>
Besides “drilling down” you may also want to “drill up.” By drilling up, you access resources in
folders your calling page is in. For example, suppose you have the following path and your
HTML5 page is in the baseFolder.
topFolder/middleFolder/baseFolder
To access a graphic file in the middleFolder, you would use the following format:
<img src=”.../anyGraphic.png”>
If the graphic were in the topFolder, you would use the following format:
<img src=”../../anyGraphic.png”>
105
In drilling up, you don’t name the target folder your calling Web page is in; instead, you use
successive ../ characters until your call is at the level you want. This means, you can drill up
to the level you want, and then drill down another branch. For example, the following drills
up to the topFolder, and then inside the topFolder drills down through the image folder
to the target graphic:
<img src=”../../images/anyGraphic.png”>
Figure 5-10 provides a general graphic illustration of accessing resources in higher- and
lower-level folders.
.../images
images
anyFile.html
images/ images
Figure 5-10: Relative paths.
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As noted in the “Setting Your Home Base” section, earlier in this chapter, your relative position
could be set to some location other than the one where the file itself is located. For example,
consider the following two Web pages (Earth.html and Alien.html in this chapter’s folder
at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5). The first calls the second on a different server;
however, because the first page’s base is set to the second server, the call is a relative one. The first
file is named Earth.html and is located in the domain smashingHTML5.com in the
smashing folder. However, its base is set to smashingHTML5.net in the smashing folder.
So, it can use a relative URL to access the file Alien.html on a wholly different server.
Base Set to a Different Server

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<base href=”http://www.smashingHTML5.net/html5/smashing/”>
<title>Earth</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is Earth</h1>
<a href=”Alien.html”>Blast off!</a>
</body>
</html>
106
Web Page on a Different Server
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>The Planet Smashing</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Page from an Alien Server</h1>
</body>
</html>
Even though the domain for the first page (Earth.html) is smashingHTML5.com, the
base is set to smashingHTML5.net. As a result, a relative link to Alien.html, which
resides on smashingHTML5.net, is made without having to use an absolute address.
TAKE THE WHEEL

In the first section of this chapter, you saw how to use the Refresh state to automatically
change pages. To have a little fun with animation and the Refresh state, take a look at this
link to the works of Eadweard Muybridge:
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http://138.23.124.165/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/muybridge/
contents.html#
What’s interesting about Muybridge is that, in 1878, he was able to create movies using a
series of photographs. So, well before Thomas Edison invented the motion picture, Muybridge
was making short movies (about 12 frames) giving us an animated view to the past. The
University of California, Riverside, has preserved and animated Muybridge’s work using
animated GIF files online. To see how you can make animations using refresh pages, down-
load one of the animated GIF’s from Muybridge’s collection from the link above — locomo-
tion studies — and extract the 12 individual photographs from the GIF file. You can extract
animated GIF images with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, and several other programs.
(Search on “extract images from animated GIF” in a search engine to find plenty of ways to
get the individual images. If you have a Mac, you can use the Preview application, and just
drag the individual images from Preview to a separate folder.)
Once you have extracted the individual GIF files, set up your animation using the Refresh
state with the meta element in the <head> section of your program. To get started, use the
following HTML5 script (an1.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8”> 107
<meta http-equiv=”Refresh” content=”0.1; URL=an2.html”>
<title>Image 1</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src=”an1.png” alt=”one”>
</body>
</html>
The individual GIF files were saved as .png files and renamed an1.png through an12.png
(the an is for animation). Likewise, the 12 HTML files were named using the an preface from
an1.html through an12.html. Once you’re finished, you’ll have a walking horse. If you
link the 12th page back to the first, the horse just keeps on truckin’.
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10_977279-ch05.indd 108 10/28/10 10:16 PM
SMASHING HTML5
6
CHAPTER
6 DISPLAYING DATA
WITH TABLES
WHEN HTML WAS in its infancy, the table displaying data sets and for CSS3 general
element was used for the bulk of page formatting. formatting.
The advent of CSS introduced a whole new set of
rules for formatting and the table was abandoned This chapter explores the new CSS3 properties
as a formatting tool — and for good reason. that you can use for accomplishing general
However, certain table features in CSS3 have formatting layouts, but the chapter’s main focus is
been reintroduced for specific types of format- on tabular data display. Tabular data is nothing
ting. So, although tables still are not general more than data laid out in a table for ease of
formatting tools, they have key functions for reading and not primary layout structures.
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CSS3 TABLE PROPERTIES FOR HTML5

In a classic statement of double messages, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the
official body that sets the standards for HTML5, states emphatically, “Tables must not be used
as layout aids.” Then in a note following that admonition, the same document states, “There
are a variety of alternatives to using HTML tables for layout, primarily using CSS positioning
and the CSS table model.”
What this means is that, in general, table elements should not be used for layouts other than
tabular data. However, if you need tables in layouts, use CSS3 table properties.
The reason for this admonition is that when CSS became available, all layout was to be done
with CSS. In order not to dissuade designers and developers from using the CSS3 table
properties (only), W3C added the note that it was okay to use CSS3 table properties and
attributes in layout. So, if you’re familiar with all the old warnings about not using table
elements in layout, rest assured that CSS3 table properties are fine for design — up to a point.
In order to see what this CSS3 feature can do for a design, the first step is to look at the CSS3
display property value of table and table-cell. The display property can be envi-
sioned as a layout statement. The values within the display map out how the display is to be
arranged. One of the easiest ways to make a display is to use the table and table-cell values. It
might be helpful to think of the table property as a big container and the table-cells as the
individual cells in the container. As far as more sophisticated designs are concerned, table-
110 cells are pretty close to a table as a design tool and all the associated problems inherent in it.
So, use it for simple applications where you just need a few columns to achieve a simple task.
The CSS3 format for setting up displays uses predefined classes, a user class, or an ID. The
display property is assigned a simple table or table-cell as a value. The following is an example
(within a style definition):
.story {
display: table;
}
.col1 {
display: table-cell;
width: 250px;
padding-right: 20px;
color:#cc0000;
}
The story class simply defines the display property as a table. The col1 class, which you can
place inside the table, is displayed as a table-cell, and it’s helpful to think of it as such. The
following code (DisplayTable.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how to set up a design that can be used to display text and graphics
in two columns.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
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CHAPTER 6: DISPLAYING DATA WITH TABLES
body {
font-size:12px;
}
h1 {
width:520px;
text-align:center;
color:#005500;
}
.story {
display: table;
}
.col1 {
width: 250px;
padding-right: 20px;
color:#cc0000;
}
.col2 {
width: 250px;
color:blue;
}
</style> 111
<title>Table with Display Property</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>2010 World Cup</h1>
<div class=”col1”><img src=”cupImages/us.gif”></div>
<div class=”col2”><img src=”cupImages/england.gif”></div>
</header>
<br>
<article class=”story”>
<section class=”col1”>During the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, each country
was represented by one team. The United States was made up of players from all over
the U.S., where soccer has been played by youth teams for the last 40 years.
However, soccer has not caught on with the same enthusiasm in the United States as
it has in the rest of the world—where it is known as “football.” Nevertheless, the
U.S. team did well, winning its class in the first round of play.</section>
<section class=”col2”> One of the few nations that has more than a single country
represented in World Cup play is the United Kingdom. In the first round of play,
the United States and England, represented by the St. George flag (rather than the
Union Jack), played to a tie. The tie delighted the Americans and dismayed the
English. Like the U.S., England made it to the second round, and, like the U.S.,
they, too, failed to move on to the next level.</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
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The story class is a container for ordering different sections that are assigned col1 or col2
classes. However, the col1 and col2 classes do not have to be placed in a table. Notice that
the two graphics — one each in the two different table-cell classes — are defined using <div>
tags within the <header> container. They’re then used again inside the <article>
container that has been assigned a story class (table). The two sections have been defined as
col1 and col2 displays, and although they’re not seen in the containers for the two graph-
ics, you can see that different colored text helps to show their separate status. Figure 6-1 shows
what you can expect to see in your browser.
112
Figure 6-1: Using the CSS3 display property with table values.
As you can see in Figure 6-1, using table-cells is an easy way to set up multiple columns.
When you develop more sophisticated Web sites, you’ll want to use more advanced CSS3
display definitions beyond tables and table-cells, but the table property in CSS3 is available
when you need it.
TABLES AND TABULAR DATA

Keeping in mind that we’ll get an electrical shock if we use standard table markups for site
design, this next section takes a close look at how to use tables for displaying tabular data.
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Tabular data can be anything from a set of numbers to graphics to descriptive text. If you’ve
ever ordered parts for your car (or just about anything else), chances are, the parts are listed in
a tabular format. Usually, you’ll find a description of the part, the part number, the year model
the part is for, the car model, and the price.
The key to understanding tabular data is that it’s laid out in rows and columns for displaying
information in common categories. Further, the purpose of a table is to clarify information so
that the user can find what she needs.
TABLE BASICS
The basic elements of a table are
The table itself, <table>

The table rows, <tr>
The table cells, <td>
The table headers, <th>
Generally, a table caption <caption> is used at the top of the table. A clear table generally
has clearly marked column and row headings. The cell in the upper-left corner is often left
blank so that the first column doesn’t label the row heads; however, the standards state that no
cell be left empty. So, the corner cell in BasicTable.html contains “r/c” to fill the space — for
now, at least. The following example shows the basic table elements in a simple table. The row 113
and columns both have headings, and the data cells represent data placed in the labeled rows
and columns.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Basic Table</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
Rows and Columns in a Table
</caption>
<tr>
<td>r/c
<th>Column 1
<th>Column 2
<th>Column 3
<tr>
<th>Row 1
<td>data a
<td>data b
<td>data c
<tr>
11_977279-ch06.indd 113 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<th>Row 2
<td>data x
<td>data y
<td>data z
</table>
</body>
</html>
One of the more interesting aspects of the table tags is that the closing tags are optional. No
best practice suggests that closing tags be used or not. Formatting the code so that the rows
are clearly delineated is important for making sense out of what you see. By not including the
table cell closing tags, the code seems to be a lot clearer and less cluttered, and that’s a good
thing. So, the closing cell tags are going to be left out unless putting one in will help clarify
what’s going on in the listing. Figure 6-2 shows what you’ll see when you launch the file in a
browser.
114
Figure 6-2: A basic table.
Notice that while the <th> tags cause the text to be shown in boldface that the table
<caption> does not. That can be fixed with CSS3, and so can the rest of the table to make
it more useful. However, to get started with tables, all you need to understand are the basics.
STYLING A TABLE
You don’t use tables for general styling work, but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore the
style of the table itself. The good news in HTML5 is that borders on tables are not a default
state as they had been in previous versions of HTML. In fact, the table border attribute is no
longer supported in HTML5. If you want lines around the cells, you have to take that respon-
sibility yourself and add them using CSS3. Borders around cells or anything else must be done
judiciously or (in the opinion of many designers) not at all.
ADDING BORDERS WITH CSS3

The renowned information-design thinker Edward Tufte cautions that borders can clutter up
the background so much that the data are difficult to read and understand. Although borders
clearly separate tabular data, visible borders muddy the waters between the data, making each
11_977279-ch06.indd 114 10/28/10 10:16 PM

data point difficult to easily discern. To see what Tufte means, enter the following script
(BadBorders.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5)
and look at the page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
table {
width:400px;
border-style:groove;
border-width:thick;
border-color:#FF5C19;
color:#C00;
font-size:10px;
}
caption {
font-size:24px;
color:hsl(17, 60%, 40%);
padding:12px;
}
td, th {
border-style:solid;
115
border-width:thin;
border-color:#000;
}
</style>
<title>Borders Are Blinding</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
Pet Care
</caption>
<tr>
<td>§
<th>Cats
<th>Dogs
<th>Fish
<tr>
<th>Feeding
<td>Cat food is good
<td>Doggy treats
<td>Yucky fish food
<tr>
<th>Care
<td>Scratching post
11_977279-ch06.indd 115 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<td>A rubber ball

<td>Clean tank and air bubbles
</table>
</body>
</html>
Figure 6-3 shows the results, but before looking at it, examine the CSS3 code carefully. Also,
the value &#167 is a character code for a symbol entered using code instead of the keyboard.
All UTF-8 characters can be entered this way. Certain symbols such as the greater-than
(>) and less-than (<) characters must be entered using this method; otherwise, the
parser reads them as part of a tag. Now, take a look at Figure 6-3 to see the page with the
borders.
116
Figure 6-3: Borders can interfere with data clarity.
When trying to read the different data elements, the borders get in the way. To fix that, all you
have to do is add padding to the borders and height to the cells. In the style, change the td
and th element definitions to the following:
td, th {
height:50px;
border-style:solid;
border-width:thin;
border-color:#000;
padding:20px;
}
All that you changed is the height of the cell and the space between the border and the text
(padding). However, the difference is significant, as you can see in Figure 6-4.
With the added space around the data, the cell value is far clearer. The cells aren’t too pretty,
but that’s easy to take care of — just remove them.
11_977279-ch06.indd 116 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Figure 6-4: Adding space within table cells.

117
DATA CLARIFICATION WITH BACKGROUND COLORS
Back in the old days, computer printouts were done on paper with alternating background
colors to make it easier to separate individual records. (Records and rows are used inter-
changeably in this context.) As you saw, heavy borders intruding on each data cell detract
from clarity. That’s why the older computer printouts used different background colors. So,
instead of separating records by borders, you need to see how to do so using colors (see
ColorRows.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
td {
width:70px;
}
body {
font-size:10px;
}
caption {
font-size:12px;
font-weight:500;
color:#360;
11_977279-ch06.indd 117 10/28/10 10:16 PM

background-color:hsla(113, 46%, 91%, 1);

}
.money {
text-align:right;
}
table {
background-color:#FFC;
}
.alt1 {
background-color:hsla(113, 46%, 91%, .8);
}
</style>
<title>Color Separation</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
Sick Thinking Games, Inc.
</caption>
<tr>
<th>Name
<th>Acct No.
<th>Amount
<tr class=”alt1”>
118 <td>Joe Doaks
<td>ID065212
<td class=”money”>$92.83
<tr>
<td>Jane Franco
<td>ID034986
<tr class=”alt1”>
<td>Fernando Rodriguez
<td>ID019921
<tr>
<td>Benny Jet
<td>ID073456
</table>
</body>
</html>
By default, the td element left-justifies text, which is desirable in most cases. However,
with floating point numbers (numbers with decimal points), numbers are clearer using
right-justification. So, one of the style sheet classes included a money class to right-justify
financial data.
The entire table is given a light yellow background. However, the background color of the
table doesn’t affect the materials in the <caption> container; so the caption element gets
11_977279-ch06.indd 118 10/28/10 10:16 PM

a color background compatible with the table’s. Further, the table, while relatively small, wants
to optimize it for small portable devices, so the text is set to 10px (10px is pretty close to
10-point text). Figure 6-5 shows the results (with a few more records added to fill up the
vertical screen) on a mobile device.
119
Figure 6-5: Alternate row viewing in a table on a mobile device.
By using a color with less than 100 percent opacity (some transparency), the alternating green
is slightly mixed with the light yellow background color. The caption background color is the
same as the alternating row green, but it has 100 percent opacity (solid) and you can see it has
a slightly different tint. The th elements inherited the table’s background color but serve well
as column labels without any other adjustments.
The cell widths are set to a non-relative value (70px) because the width reflects the fact that
the table is optimized for mobile viewing. As a result, the names can take up double rows and
not detract from either the design or the table’s functionality.
11_977279-ch06.indd 119 10/28/10 10:16 PM

COMPLEX TABLES
The term complex implies tables that are difficult to understand. Actually, complex tables are
solutions to tricky problems. If you’re using tables to organize data coming out of a database,
chances are good that you can use a pretty standard table with a measured set of rows and
columns all the same size.
When you begin to use a table to display data for just about anything, including data coming
from a database, you may encounter situations in which something happens to change the
neat set of rows and columns, and you have to make adjustments to fit more into a single row
or column than originally planned.
In order to understand complex tables, you need to understand the idea of a cell. A table is
nothing more than a collection of cells ordered into rows and columns. The intersection of a
column and row is the cell. In HTML5, you create cells using the <td> and <th> tags. Figure
6-2, earlier in this chapter, shows basic cells organized into rows and columns.
USING THE ROWSPAN AND COLSPAN ATTRIBUTES

To change a cell’s default characteristic of an intersection between a single row and column,
you need to use a td element’s attributes, rowspan and/or colspan. Each attribute is
assigned a positive integer value that expands a cell to cover multiple rows or columns. Figure
6-6 shows a standard table made up of equal-size cells and a comparative table with expanded
120 rows and columns.
Figure 6-6: A table with equal-size cells and a table with rowspan and colspan.
Figure 6-6 shows that the first cell in Row 2 in the bottom table took up the space of three
cells in Row 2 in the top table. In Col 5 of the bottom table, both Row 1 and Row 2 were
11_977279-ch06.indd 120 10/28/10 10:16 PM

collapsed into a single cell taking up both rows. Importantly, the top table has ten cells and the
bottom table has only seven cells. When you code tables with rowspan and colspan, you’ll
use fewer <td> tags compared to a table that does not (see RowColSpan.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
caption {
color:#C60;
}
table {
}
td, tr {
border-style:solid;
border-width:thin;
border-color:#ccc;
width:120px;
padding:5px;
}
</style>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8”> 121
<title>Colspan and Rowspan</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
Rowspan and Colspan
</caption>
<tr>
<td rowspan=”2”>Row A and Row B
<td>Column 2a
<td>Column 3a
<td>Column 4a
<tr>
<td>Column 2b
<td>Column 3b
<td>Column 4b
<tr>
<td>Row C
<td>Column 2c
<td colspan=”2”>Column 3c and Column 4c
</table>
</body>
</html>
This example uses a very light gray border so that you can better see the spans — vertically
and horizontally. However, you don’t need the borders to use spans. In fact, without borders,
11_977279-ch06.indd 121 10/28/10 10:16 PM

it can be difficult to distinguish where the spans actually exist, which can be a good thing.
Figure 6-7 shows the actual table with the two spans.
Figure 6-7: Adding vertical and horizontal spans.
You can see that the table in Figure 6-7 has 10 cells where a full 4-by-3 table would have 12.
Likewise, in the listing, you can see ten <td> tags. Both colspan and rowspan can be a
little tricky, but if you think of them in terms of cell mergers, they’re a little easier to under-
stand and work with.
PRACTICAL SPANS IN TABLES

122 When creating complex tables using colspan and rowspan, the exercise may seem to be
one in futility because a practical application doesn’t seem that obvious. Alternatively, you
may look to do the whole thing in CSS3 without any use of table elements or attributes. So,
the following walks through a simple but typical scenario where spanning cells is a practical
solution.
Consider a Web development/design firm that has set up project management using tables as
a simple way to keep track of a project’s progress. The production team is divided into the
following groups, each with a separate record:
Team coordinator (1)

Design team (4)
Rich interactive application (RIA) design (2)
Front-end development (3)
Back-end development (2)
The columns for the project include the following:
Task
Project
Team members
Due date
11_977279-ch06.indd 122 10/28/10 10:16 PM

That should be simple enough to understand and complex enough to be useful. The irony of
making this table is in adding the spans where only one item is in the cell. It’s almost counter-
intuitive because the column for the team members will have several rows within the other
cells that have a rowspan the size of the team size. The following program (SpanProject.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) illustrates how
this is done.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* F2F0E6,595443,A6A08D,3A3F59,8D91A6 */
caption {
color:#3A3F59;
}
table {
background-color:#F2F0E6;
padding:5px;
border-collapse:collapse;
}
td, tr {
padding-right:8px;
font-size:11px; 123
border-collapse:collapse;
}
.bluish {
background-color:#8D91A6;
}
.brownish {
background-color:#A6A08D;
}
</style>
<title>Project Tracker</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<caption>
Project Plan
</caption>
<tr>
<th>Task
<th>Project
<th>Team
<th>Due Date
<tr class=”bluish”>
<td>Coordinator
<td>Cold Fire
11_977279-ch06.indd 123 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<td>Emma Peel
<td>01-21-2012
<tr class=”brownish”>
<td rowspan=”4”>Design Team
<td rowspan=”4”>Cold Fire
<td>Sancho Panza
<td rowspan=”4”>10-01-2011
<td>John Watson
<td>Edward McMahon
<td>Vanna White
<td rowspan=”2”>Rich Interaction<br>
Design
<td rowspan>Garth Algar
<td rowspan=”2”>11-12-2011
<td> John McIntyre
<td rowspan=”3”>Front End<br>
Development
124 <td>Barney Rubble
<td rowspan=”3”>12-15-2011
<td>Ethel Mertz
<td>Paul Schaffer
<td rowspan=”2”>Back End<br>
Development
<td rowspan>Louise Sawyer
<td rowspan=”2”>01-15-2012
<td>Andy Richer
</table>
</body>
</html>
Basically, the <td> tags that include a rowspan attribute are those that have to be large
enough to match the number of team members that will be in the same row. Figure 6-8 shows
how the page appears in a browser.
The most important thing to remember about tables is that they should be used judiciously.
They aren’t general design tools, but you can use CSS3 to design the look of tabular data set in
table elements. So think, “Tabular data, tables; non-tabular content, CSS3 only.”
11_977279-ch06.indd 124 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Figure 6-8: Multiple and differential rowspans.
TAKE THE WHEEL

Figure 6-9 shows the end result of the challenge table. It has headers at the top and bottom,
and the background colors for the rows are at 20 percent and 40 percent opacity. See if you
125
can replicate it with HTML5 and CSS3.
Figure 6-9: Challenge table.
11_977279-ch06.indd 125 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Feel free to change the regions, cities, teams, and comments — especially if you’re a New York
Yankees fan. You can substitute cities from all over the world and include hockey, rugby, soccer
(football), cricket, and women’s teams. Just get the table to look like the one in Figure 6-9.
126
11_977279-ch06.indd 126 10/28/10 10:16 PM

SMASHING HTML5
7
CHAPTER
7 ALL ABOUT LINKS
THE MAJOR CAPABILITY of Web pages However, this chapter looks at how links load
besides displaying text, graphics, and media is other Web pages, as well as how they’re used to
loading other pages. Using Web pages, people — access alternate style sheets. Included in this
including designers and developers — tend to examination are the different attributes that are
think of going somewhere or getting something. related to loading pages, the details of accessing
We even think of helping users with site maps a page, and CSS3 properties used to both style
and navigation tools that imply that they’re on links and to launch interactive features in those
some kind of trip. The navigational issues are properties.
important and are discussed in Chapter 8.
12_977279-ch07.indd 127 10/28/10 10:16 PM

THE LINK ELEMENT AND ITS KEY ATTRIBUTES

The major link element is the a element. So, most of this chapter will focus on the <a> tag.
However, before doing that, the <link> tag is important to consider. It, too, loads pages, and
while the files loaded using the link element cannot be seen, they’re an important kind of
data-loading feature that needs to be understood for optimum use.
The attributes used with both <a> and <link> tags share attribute characteristics with all
HTML5 elements, so they can be treated just like an attribute for <h1>, <body>, or any other
HTML5 tag. However, the attributes used with link elements tend to focus on loading files
(.html, .css, and .js) rather than on appearance.
The link element itself is part of the metadata content and is found within the head con-
tainer at the top of a Web page. In Chapter 3, you saw how to use link to load external CSS
files. In the first section, I show you how to set up your Web page to load mutually independ-
ent style sheets.
ALTERNATE STYLE SHEETS

In an attempt to make Web pages as accessible to as many users as possible, the new HTML5
browsers have pop-up menus that allow you to select from more than one style sheet. Using
the <link> tag with the rel attribute set to alternate stylesheet, you can include as
many style sheets as you want, and the user can select which she likes best. Here’s the general
128 format:
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”default.css” title=”default”>

<link rel=”alternate stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”other.css” title=”alternate”>
The ref value alternate stylesheet is an entity that is different from the alternate
value that I cover in the next section. You can load as many style sheets as you want; however,
the user can only change to an alternate style sheet — not to a regular style sheet.
To see how the alternate style sheets work, this next example begins with two different
external style sheets saved in files named warm.css and cool.css. Then, the Web page
code creates the code that loads the warm style sheet as the default, and users may choose to
switch between the two styles.
Warm Color Theme

/* CSS Document */
body {
/*FFE0A3,7F7D78,FFFAF0,7F7052,CCC8C0 */
font-size:11;
background-color:#FFFAF0;
color:#7F7052;
}
12_977279-ch07.indd 128 10/28/10 10:16 PM

CHAPTER 7: ALL ABOUT LINKS
h1 {
color:#7F7D78;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
background-color:#CCC8C0;
color:#FFE0A3;
}
Cool Color Theme

/* CSS Document */
body {
/*056CF2,0F88F2,52B5F2,85D3F2,F2F2F2 */
font-size:11;
color:#056CF2;
}
h1 {
font-family:”Arial Black”, Gadget, sans-serif; 129
color:#52B5F2;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
background-color:#85D3F2;
color:#0F88F2;
}
The warm and cool color schemes use identical CSS3 code, save for the color values. In that
way when we compare them, everything except the color palette will be the same. The
following Web page (AlternateStylesheets.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) uses both CSS external files with one being the default
(stylesheet) and the other the alternate (alternate stylesheet):
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”warm.css” title=”Warm View (Default)”>
<link rel=”alternate stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”cool.css” title=”Cool scene”>
<title>Alternative External Style Sheets</title>
</head>
<body>
12_977279-ch07.indd 129 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<h1>Warm and Cool</h1>

<h2> Switch between Warm and Cool </h2>
To switch, select View > Page Style [or Style] from your browser menu and choose the
one you want. Use either the Opera or Firefox browser to start, and then test the
other HTML5 browsers.
</body>
</html>
The rest of the usage is up to the browser. In testing the different HTML5 browsers, at the
time of testing only the Opera and Firefox browsers actually had menu items for selecting
different style sheets. If you plan to use alternate style sheets with a general set of browsers, be
sure to test them with this program first. Figure 7-1 shows the default setting in the Opera
browser with the style sheet selection open.
130
Figure 7-1: Displaying the warm style on the Opera browser.
12_977279-ch07.indd 130 10/28/10 10:16 PM

As you can see in Figure 7-1, the Opera browser path View > Style menu shows the title of the
default CSS3 style — Warm View (Default). If users want to switch to the alternate style sheet,
they simply select the Cool scene. Figure 7-2 shows the Firefox browser selecting the alternate
style sheet.
131
Figure 7-2: Switching style sheets in Firefox.
In Firefox, the menu to select style sheets is slightly different, but like the Opera browser, it
provides users with the opportunity to change styles dynamically if they want.
LINK ICONS
Next to using the rel attribute for assigning style sheets, the most used value is for setting up
a small icon to represent the page. Graphic icons can be assigned to the rel attribute using
the following format:
<link rel=”icon” href=”graphic.png” sizes=”32x32”/>
In earlier versions of HTML, the relation value was shortcut icon but just icon works
as well.
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In setting up the following example (LinkIcon.html in this chapter’s folder at www.

wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5), several <meta> tags are used as well. They contain
information about the page used by search engines, and although they’re always helpful, they
aren’t required for setting up the link relation to an icon.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<meta name=”application-name” content=”HTML5, CSS3”/>
<meta name=”description” content=”HTML5 Linking icon”/>
<meta name=”application-url” content=”LinkIcon.html”/>
<link rel=”icon” href=”LinkAnchor.png” sizes=”32x32”/>
<title>Page Icon</title>
</head>
<body>
Link icon
</body>
</html>
In testing the icons with four different browsers (Safari, Chrome, Opera, Firefox), the icons
only showed up on the Opera and Firefox browsers. Internet Explorer (IE) was not tested
because at the time of this writing, Microsoft was still developing IE9. Also, none of the
mobile browsers displayed the page icon. Figure 7-3 shows where the icons (a small green
132 anchor) appear on the Opera and Firefox browsers.
Icons in Firefox
Icons in Opera
Figure 7-3: Displaying icons on Firefox and Opera.
In creating an icon, I used a .png file set to the default 32 x 32 pixels. You can use different
sizes, but the limits are not clear; however, they are set to where the height and width are
the same.
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PREFETCHING
A new HTML5 value for the rel attribute in the link element is prefetch. Suppose you
have a page that is a little “hefty” — it’s got some big content like large graphics, video, or
audio. Before users go to the page, wouldn’t it be nice to preload the page (graphics and all)
so that when they click on the link, everything is ready for them? That’s what prefetching is.
While the browser is idle, prefetching gives it something to do. For example, the following
uses prefetch to load a video:
<link rel=”prefetch” href=”Test.mov”>
So when the user goes to the page with the video, it has already started loading — or it may be
completely loaded and ready to go. Here are some other examples:
<link rel=”prefetch” href=”monkeys.html”>

<link rel=”prefetch” href=”monsterTrucksFull.png”>
<link rel=”prefetch” href=”http://www.sandlight.com”>
<link rel=”prefetch alternate stylesheet” =”http://wherever.org/fall.css”> href
<link rel=”prefetch” href=”sumVa.mp4” title=”Summer vacation”>
Before you start planning to use the prefetch value with every page that links to a “heavy”
page, remember that its value is dependent on whether users are likely to go to that page. For
example, suppose you’re creating a Web site for a big department store, and users select from
several different graphic displays of products. If the Web page prefetches all the graphics in
133
the selection matrix, it’s going to add a heavy load to the user’s computer. So, instead of
getting a crisp response, loading the selected page could be sluggish because it has all the
other graphics in memory that have been prefetched.
One way to optimize prefetch is to organize your pages so that links to a heavy page have a
path that limits pre-loading. Pages that include media that require a good deal of load time
should have a path to them that has only a few choices with heavy loads.
OTHER LINK ATTRIBUTES

Other than the rel attribute, the other link attributes include:
href: Points to external style sheets and icons.

media: Specifies the kind of media for the link — screen, PDF, print; if no value is
assigned to media, the default is “all.”
hreflang: Provides the language of a resource and is purely advisory.
type: Identifies the type of file content, such as “text/css” — the MIME types.
sizes: Specifies the dimensions of an icon, such as 32x32, 48x48, and other sizes used
for graphic figures used as icons.
title: Has a real value when using alternative style sheets, but otherwise it’s advisory.
As you’ve seen in the examples using the rel attribute, these other attributes are often used in
conjunction with rel.
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PAGE LINKS
The a element in HTML5, as well as in previous versions of HTML, is one of the key elements
in the language. Its primary use is to serve as a means to load a page using the href attribute.
Without the href attribute, the <a> tag can serve as a placeholder, but for all intents and
purposes, the a element is really a combination of the element and the attribute. That’s why
we tend to think in terms of a href or an <a href> tag rather than just the a element by
itself. This section examines the nuances of the a element with the focus on the href
attribute, but the first topic is using the rel attribute with the a element.
MORE OF THE REL ATTRIBUTE

The rel attribute is related to more than just the link element, and while most of the rel
values assigned to link also apply to the a and area elements, only a subset is examined
here. The full list of applicable values for the rel attribute in the a element include the
following:
alternate
archives
author
bookmark
external
134 first
help
index
last
license
next
nofollow
noreferrer
prev
search
sidebar
tag
up
Of these, several are for organizing navigation, and these will be discussed more in Chapter 8.
For example, index, first, last, prev, and next (among others) all refer to navigation
order. I’m introducing them here so that when navigation in a larger context is discussed in
Chapter 8, you’ll be familiar with the concepts. Other values assigned to the rel attribute in
the a element context have more to do with identifying certain characteristics, such as the
link’s author or a help link, and I discuss them first.
12_977279-ch07.indd 134 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Author relations
Sometimes, a Web page includes the page’s author, and you may want to contact her. To help
identify the relation, an author value can be assigned to the link. A common link for such
situations is the mailto: keyword used in an href assignment. For example, the following
listing (AuthorLink.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashing
html5) uses the author value along with the mailto: link.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* FFF8E3,CCCC9F,33332D,9FB4CC,DB4105 */
body {
font-size:11px;
background-color:#CCCC9F;
color:#33332D;
}
h1 {
background-color:#33332D;
color:#9FB4CC;
text-align:center;
} 135
h2 {
background-color:#DB4105;
color:#FFF8E3;
}
a {
font-size:9px;
color:#DB4105;
}
</style>
<title>Author</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>All about HTML5</h1>
</header>
<article>
<header>
<h2> Herein lies the Wisdom of the Ages </h2>
</header>
<section> Whoaaa!―<em>Wisdom of the Ages?</em>―That’s a lot of respon-
sibility! Why not―<em>The best I can do since 2010?</em>
<p> Who wrote this thing anyway?</p>
<h3>He did!↓</h3>
12_977279-ch07.indd 135 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<footer>
<nav><a href=”mailto:bill@billzplace.net” rel=author>Bill Sanders</a></nav>
</footer>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
In creating the author e-mail link, the a element is styled to get rid of the underline — the
default style for links — and replaces it with a small but noticeable color. To some extent, the
entire page draws focus to the link, as you can see in Figure 7-4.
136
When cursor is placed over link to author’s e-mail...

... a message appears in the lower-right corner.
Figure 7-4: Using the author e-mail link.
The cite element can be confused with the author value assigned to the rel attribute in
an a element. First, cite is an independent element, and second, it italicizes the content in a
cite container. For example, the following snippet shows how both keywords are used in the
same paragraph:
<p>Most of the quotes can be found in the works of <a href=”http://www.willieS.com”

rel=”author”>William Shakespeare</a>, especially the famous reference book,
<cite>Camford’s Complete Works of the Bard</cite>.</p>
The text in that code generates:
Most of the quotes can be found in the works of William Shakespeare, especially the
famous reference book, Camford’s Complete Works of the Bard.
12_977279-ch07.indd 136 10/28/10 10:16 PM

As you can see when you place that code in a Web page, the author value is advisory and the
cite element changes the appearance of the text. In some respects, both are advisory in that
each calls attention to the content — one in the code, and the other in the screen display.
Hierarchical and sequential link types

You can organize your links using both hierarchical and sequential link types. The hierarchi-
cal rel values include index and up. The up value refers to a level up in the hierarchy, and
index refers to the very top. For example, the following code references a directory that is
the top of the hierarchy, three levels up from the calling page.
<a href=”/” rel=”index up up up”>Home</a>
The clearest path in the example is made by referencing both the index and the number of
up levels.
The sequential link types include first, last, next, and prev with each keyword relative
to a page within a sequence. For example, the following code goes to the next page relative to
a page in the sequence:
<a href=”page4.html” rel=”next”>Page 4</a>
The implementation of these link types is different for different browsers, and they’re better
used with the link element to map out a site’s organization relative to a given page than to 137
direct a page using the a element.
PAGE ANCHORS AND IDS

In addition to linking directly to a page, you can link to a specific location on a page. One way
to link directly to a location on a page is to assign an anchor to a tag on the page using the
name attribute. For example, the following code will jump to the position on the current page
where the “developer” name is found:
<a href=”#developer”>Developers</a>
To set up the target using an anchor, just assign a tag the name of the anchor like the following:
<div name=”developer”>
In testing the anchor technique on HTML5 browsers, it failed to work on several. The HTML5
browsers seemed to have adopted using CSS3 to create IDs and use them exclusively. The
following example (AnchorID.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how to use IDs as anchors:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
/*D4CBA0,BD4A14,804130,4F3C33,6D7F59*/
12_977279-ch07.indd 137 10/28/10 10:16 PM

body {
background-color:#D4CBA0;
color:#804130;
}
h1 {
color:#4F3C33;
background-color:#BD4A14;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
color:#6D7F59;
}
h3 {
margin-left:15px;
color:#4F3C33;
}
a {
font-size:11px;
color:#BD4A14;
}
nav {
138 text-align:center;
}
#fsquirell { };
#cats { };
#dogs { };
</style>
<head>
<title>Anchors</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<nav><a href=”#fsquirrel”>Flying Squirrels</a> | <a href=”#cats”>Cats</
a> | <a href=”#dogs”>Dogs</a></nav>
<h1>Caring for Pets</h1>
Just in case you’re not interested in Flying Squirrels, you can select the “Cat”
or “Dog” anchors and go right to your topic of interest. </header>
<section ID=”fsquirrel”>
<header>
<h2>Care and Handling of Flying Squirrels</h2>
</header>
<h3>Hangars</h3>
<h3>Runways</h3>
12_977279-ch07.indd 138 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<h3>Flight Training</h3>
<h3>Airline Food</h3>
<h3>Baggage (these squirrels have lots of it...)</h3>
</section>
<section ID=”cats”>
<header>
<h2>Care and Handling of Cats</h2>
</header>
<h3>Kitty Basket</h3>
<h3>Scratching Post</h3>
<h3>Litter Box</h3>
<h3>Cat Food</h3>
<h3>Toy Mouse and Catnip</h3>
</section>
<section ID=”dogs”>
<header>
<h2>Care and Handling of Dogs</h2>
</header>
<h3>Dog House</h3>
<h3>Walks</h3>
<h3>House Breaking</h3>
<h3>Dog Food</h3>
<h3>Chew Toys and Balls</h3>
</section>
<footer>
<nav><a href=”#fsquirrel”>Flying Squirrels</a> | <a href=”#cats”>Cats</ 139
a> | <a href=”#dogs”>Dogs</a></nav>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
When using CSS3 IDs for anchors on mobile devices, you’ll find that your design is not quite
as constrained for the small screen sizes. As you can see in Figure 7-5, anchors make it easy to
navigate a page on a mobile device.
In Figure 7-5, the screen on the left is the initial page on an Opera Mini browser. When the
Dogs link is tapped (or clicked on a non-mobile device), the page jumps down to the dog
information. Notice that the menu is both at the top and bottom of the page. Generally
speaking, if your page is long enough to require IDs for moving around the page, you should
have a top and bottom menu. If the page is very long, you can give the nav element an ID and
then have each section link to the menu.
If you want to set up a link directly to an ID or anchor, you simply add #name to the URL.
For example, if somewhere else on your site (or even another site), you want a direct link to
the material about cats. You’d simply create the following link:
<a href=”http://my.domain.com/AnchorsID.html#cats”>
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140 Figure 7-5: Using IDs for anchors.
From within the same directory, you would write:
<a href=”AnchorsID.html#cats”>
In Chapter 8, you’ll see how to use IDs and anchors in planning a navigation design strategy.
TARGETS
Up to this point, all the links have been ones that replace the calling page with a new page to
be loaded in your browser window. However, you can use the target attribute with the <a>
tag to assign different ways for a page to appear — known as the browsing context. You may
select from the following browsing contexts using target:
_self replaces the current page; default if no context is assigned.

_blank opens the new page in a new browser window — a new browsing context.
_parent opens the new page in the “parent” document of the current page. The parent
document is typically the browser windows that caused the current page to open.
_top opens the new page in the full body of the current browser window.
12_977279-ch07.indd 140 10/28/10 10:16 PM

These browsing contexts are assigned as shown in the following snippet:
<a href=”somePage.html” target=”_blank”>
The underscore in naming all the browsing contexts is required. So, something like
target =”blank” would not work — it has to be target=”_blank”.
In older versions of HTML, the frame and frameset elements were widely used and both
could be named as target values. Likewise, the _parent and _top browsing contexts would
be used to open a page in a different frame. In HTML5, the major use of the target attribute
is to select the _blank browsing context over _self (default).
New browsing contexts in computer browsers

When you use the target attribute in the a element to create a _blank browsing context in
your computer, the current page remains on the screen and the requested page appears in a
new browser window or tab. The following program (Link2Target.html in this chapter’s
folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) is a simple illustration of how this works.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
h1 { 141
color:#060;
}
a {
color:#900;
}
h3 {
}
</style>
<title>Open New Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Original Page</h1>
</header>
<nav>
<h3><a href=”http://www.w3.org” target=”_blank”>World Wide Web</a></h3>
</nav>
</body>
</html>
12_977279-ch07.indd 141 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Figure 7-6 shows your screen when you test the program on your computer and click the link.
Depending on your browser’s setting, your new page may appear in a new tab instead of a
separate window. You can drag the tab to create a separate window so that both pages can be
viewed simultaneously.
142
Figure 7-6: Opening a new window on a computer screen.
New browsing contexts in mobile browsers

When a Web page uses a _blank browser context in a mobile device, you do not have the
ability to see multiple pages in a single viewing window. Instead, the calling page is treated as
a previous page (Opera Mini) that can be accessed by pressing a back arrow or some other
method. The Safari browser for the iPhone has a pages icon in the lower-right corner that
shows the number of currently loaded pages. When the user taps the pages icon, up to eight
pages can be viewed in a window where the user can slide them to view them sequentially.
Figure 7-7 shows the pages context in a Safari browser on an iPhone.
If the page is opened using a _blank browsing context in the mobile Safari browser, it does
not have a back link as in the Opera Mini browser; however, it’s opened in a new browser
window alongside the calling page.
12_977279-ch07.indd 142 10/28/10 10:16 PM

Page opened in
new window.
Calling page with a

_blank value assigned
to target attribute.
143
Figure 7-7: Viewing multiple pages in Safari on the iPhone.
USING IFRAMES
The iframe element declares an inline frame. Using inline frames, you can load other Web
pages or other media within a single Web page. The element represents what is called a nested
browsing context. The “Targets” section in this chapter discusses different browsing contexts
in terms of different windows and tabs. A nested browsing context occurs when one page is
nested inside another page. Essentially, an <iframe> tag places one Web page inside another.
12_977279-ch07.indd 143 10/28/10 10:16 PM

You may wonder why you would want one Web page inside another one. Why not just open a
new window or tab? One reason is to allow users to get an idea of what may be in the pages
and then link to whichever the user finds most interesting, relevant, or appropriate.
Other uses of iframes include placing thumbnail images on a page, and then allowing the user
to select different thumbnails to bring up the full-size image. This allows you to build a single
Web page where the user can view several different images by selecting image links that bring
up the image in the same page — all without having to use JavaScript or Ajax.
NESTING WEB PAGES

The HTML5 iframe element has several attributes; some of which are new to HTML5.
However, to get started, all you need to know is the basic tag and how it’s implemented. The
following is the bare bones <iframe> tag with a Web page embedded:
<iframe src=”http://www.w3.org”></iframe>
That tag simply places the source Web page in the upper-left corner of the calling page. To
better see the options and control over the iframe, the following program (iframeWeb.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) embeds two
different Web pages inside itself and add several attributes that you can see.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
144 <html>
<head>
/*657BA6,F2EDA2,F2EFBD,F2DCC2,D99379*/
body {
background-color:#F2EDA2;
}
h1 {
color:#657BA6;
}
</style>
<title>Iframe Web</title>
</head>
<body>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Before iframes</h1>
</header>
<section>
<iframe name=”info” width=”480”, height=”320” sandbox=”allow-same-origin”
seamless src=”http://www.smashingmagazine.com”></iframe>
12_977279-ch07.indd 144 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<iframe name=”info2” width=”480”, height=”320” sandbox seamless src=”http://www.

w3.org”></iframe>
</section>
<footer>
<h1>After iframes</h1>
</footer>
</article>
</body>
</html>
</body>
</html>
In the two <iframe> tags, you can see several attributes, some of which you’ve seen in other
elements. The iframe element itself has seven attributes plus HTML5 global attributes. The
element attributes are
src
srcdoc
name
sandbox
seamless
width
145
height
Of these seven, srcdoc, sandbox, and seamless are new. At the time of this writing the
srcdoc has not been implemented in any of the tested browsers, but when it is, it navigates
to a text/HTML file with information specific for the iframe. The sandbox attribute, available
in the Google Chrome browser, is used for restricting the types of content and functionality
that can be provided in an iframe, for security reasons. The seamless attribute has not been
implemented either, but when it is, all links will be opened in the parent browsing context
instead of the nested browsing context — inside the iframe. Older browsers and HTML5
browsers that have not yet implemented them ignore all these new iframe attributes.
Therefore, you can add the attributes to <iframe> tags to set up good habits so that when
they’re available, they can help add security to your Web pages. Figure 7-8 shows how the
embedded pages appear on a computer screen.
The h1 headings before and after the embedded pages show that the embedded pages are not
subject to the CSS3 style of the parent page. Also, you can see that each page is inside another
page — before and after the insertion of the two other Web pages.
If you look at the code, you’ll see that their dimensions (320 x 480) suggest the viewing
resolution for a mobile device. However, when tested on a mobile device, the iframe opened
up to display the entire embedded pages. No scroll bars appear in the mobile browsers, so the
only alternative to show the entire contents of the embedded pages is to allow them to be
thumb-scrolled horizontally and vertically within the iframe. Initially, this may seem to be a
12_977279-ch07.indd 145 10/28/10 10:16 PM

deal breaker for iframes in mobile devices; however, in Chapter 8, you’ll see how iframes can
be used as single-page Web sites optimized for mobile browsers.
Figure 7-8: Embedding Web pages inside a Web page.
146
TAKE THE WHEEL
Setting up a Web site of your own can be a lot of fun, and one of the tasks is to get all the links
working in concert. In the next chapter, you’ll learn about navigation strategies, but for now
you need some practice in getting a set of links and icons ready. Here’s your challenge:
1. Create three Web pages. Include several sections with headings and subheadings so that
each will go beyond a vertical screen viewing area. (In other words, the viewer would
have to scroll down in order to see the bottom sections.)
2. On each of the Web pages, set up a link to an icon (see “Link icons” in this chapter). It’s
up to you whether you want each page to have a page icon (all different) or a site icon (all
the same).
3. Create two different CSS3 style sheets (external) and provide alternate styles and access to
them on all the pages (see “Alternate style sheets” in this chapter).
4. Create a third style sheet that has nothing but IDs that will be used as anchors. Place an
ID in each section of your pages.
5. Finally, create links on each of the three pages that will link to the other two pages and all
the IDs on each page.
Make this exercise fun for yourself. You can create pages to do anything you want. There’s no
reason to be serious (unless you have a client in mind!). So, don’t worry about the content, but
make it exactly what you’d like.
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SMASHING HTML5
8
CHAPTER
8 NAVIGATION
STRATEGIES
GETTING AROUND A Web site is generally Because this book focuses on HTML5, this
known as navigation, and HTML5 recognizes chapter shows how to set up different navigation
that fact by introducing a <nav> tag. With systems using specific HTML5 elements. How-
simple sites, navigation is simple. However, bad ever, before starting on the more specific tags that
or inadequate navigation can invade virtually any are to be used, you need to understand some
Web site. By the same token, good navigation can general Web navigation concepts.
make even the most complex site easy for the
user to find what he wants.
13_977279-ch08.indd 147 10/28/10 10:16 PM

WEB NAVIGATION CONCEPTS

When thinking about navigation, Web designers consider
Interface design: Jennifer Tidwell best describes interface design for the Web in her
book Designing Interfaces. Many of the processes and patterns that Tidwell discusses are
covered in this chapter as well, but with nowhere near the depth and scope as Tidwell
does, so if you want more information on this subject, be sure to check out her book.
Information design: In a far broader topic, information design, Edward Tufte has shown
how different kinds of information can be presented so that it’s best understood. Of
special interest to Web navigation design is the notion that information is the interface.
In other words, navigation is information arranged so that users can find what they want.
Neither Tidwell’s nor Tufte’s concepts can be summarized in a tidy definition. The idea of
interaction is one of responding to another action, such as two people having a discussion.
That’s social interaction and it’s something we do all the time — including interaction
mediated by the computer, such as text chats. The same concept applies to treating a Web page
as a stand-in for another person. The user does something, and the Web page responds from a
finite set of choices created by the designer. The better the job that the designer does, the more
natural it feels to the user. Trying to create an environment of comfortable interaction is the
goal of good interaction design.
148 DESIGNER NAVIGATION AND USER NAVIGATION

Navigation design contains an almost limitless number of possibilities, and you want to set up
your navigation so that users easily can get around. The first thing to ask yourself is, “Who is
the typical user?” Then, say to yourself, “It ain’t me, babe.” If you remember the title to that old
Bob Dylan song, you’ll be on the right track. Jennifer Tidwell points out that a maxim in
interface design is, “Know thy users, for they are not you!” Two corollaries can be added to
that maxim:
The better the designer, the more likely the interface will be bad.
Excellent developers almost always make bad interfaces.
So, if you aspire to be either a great designer or a developer, you’re likely to make a bad
interface unless you pay attention. Here’s why: Great designers focus on how the page looks,
not on the users’ ability to navigate a site. Designers want to display their creativity, and that’s
a good thing. However, when that creativity is such that users can’t navigate from one page to
another, there’s a problem.
One of the worst user interfaces ever devised was on New York’s Museum of Modern Art
(MoMA) site. The navigation was based around a stack of cubes with no labels. Users were
supposed to place their mouse over each cube and a label would appear with the name of the
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CHAPTER 8: NAVIGATION STRATEGIES
linked item. In order for the MoMA site to work, some fancy coding was required under
the hood. The code would warm the cockles of any developer’s heart, but it led to a disaster
because, like the designer, the developer was thinking about what a talented coder he was and
not about the user experience. Getting the link name to pop up when the mouse moves over it
takes some coding talent that the designer did not posses. So, if you want to make a really
terrible navigation system combine the best designer and the best developer!
Can you be a good designer and/or developer and still create good interfaces? Sure, but you
have to think about it. You must take the view of your typical user into consideration. Who
are your users? Are they children or adults? Is your audience men, women, or both? What
age group? What is the user’s style? Are they businesspeople? If so, what kind of business and
where are they in the organization? Are they managers or are they the people who do the
actual work? Find out who your users are. (You already know who you are.)
If you’re a designer and you’re making a Web site for other Web designers, do you want to
show them what a good designer you are or how they can become better designers? Likewise,
if you’re a developer and you’re making a site for other developers, you definitely want to
show them code that will allow them to do some seriously sick programming. Developers
want to see some code. However, designers do not want to see code — they’re more interested
in design tools and techniques, not code. (Of course designers, love CSS3 code!) Work what
your user base wants into your navigation plan.
The very best way to find out if your interface is good is to test it with typical users. If you’re
making an educational site for third-graders, you want third-graders to test it. Likewise, if 149
you’re selling haute couture to wealthy women, you don’t want teenage girls to test your
navigation. It may take a little extra time, but you’ll have a far better site if you test your site
with the type of audience who will use it.
Knowing your users does not mean that you have to have dowdy design or use low-end
technology in your site. What it means is that you need to get to know your users and find out
what they think your site will do for them. You’re not going to change your users. Make your
site for them, not for you. If the site is not for your users, they won’t return.
GLOBAL NAVIGATION
Global navigation in Web pages refers to broad navigation categories that can be placed on
every page in a Web site. Global navigation helps users keep track of where they are in a site,
so no matter where they go, they’ll see a familiar road map.
In mapping out a trip from Santa Barbara, California, to Ocean City, New Jersey, you’ll find
major interstate highways. The links go from I-210 > I-15 > I-40 > I-44 > I-70 and finally to
I-76. These might be considered the global elements in the 3,000-mile trip from coast to coast.
However, between the major interstate highways, you’ll find smaller connector roads such as
CA-134E that connects US-101 with I-210.
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Similarly in global navigation, you must consider navigation between the major links. For
example, suppose you have a big site with the global navigation broken down into three
categories:
Animal
Vegetable
Mineral
That’s certainly global and links would fit nicely on every page like the following:
Animal | Vegetable | Mineral
However, within each of those general categories, you’re going to need something more
specific. For example, suppose a user wants to find a breed of dog — a Greater Swiss Moun-
tain Dog. The following path would be a possible one depending on the designer:
Animal
Mammal
Dog
Breeds
Greater Swiss Mountain Dog
150
Each submenu will have lots of choices, so let’s consider what elements are available in
HTML5 to handle these navigation paths from global navigation.
Using lists in global navigation

One way to approach global navigation is to use lists. For example, consider the following
script (ListNavigation.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) that uses global navigation and local navigation.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/* 3C514C,98AB98,D3DFD3,A6A47D,8C1616 */
body {
color:#3C514C;
background-color:#D3DFD3;
13_977279-ch08.indd 150 10/28/10 10:16 PM

}
h3 {
color:#8C1616;
background-color:#A6A47D
}
a {
color:#8C1616;
font-size:11px;
}
</style>
<title>Global Navigation</title>
</head>
<body>
<nav> <a href=”#”>Animal</a> | <a href=”#”>Vegetable</a> | <a href=”#”>Mineral</a> |
<ul>
<h3> Animals</h3>
<li><a href=”#”>Mammals</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Fish</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Birds</a></li>
<ul>
<h3> Mammals</h3>
<li><a href=”#”>Dogs</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Cats</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Other</a></li>
<ul> 151
<h3> Dogs</h3>
<li><a href=”#”>Golden Retriever</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Red Setter</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>German Shepherd</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Greater Swiss Mountain Dog</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</nav>
</body>
</html>
Just from looking at the code, you may suspect that this kind of navigation system will quickly
overwhelm the page. Figure 8-1 shows what appears even though the possible choices have
been drastically cut.
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152
Figure 8-1: List navigation.
With a large enough screen and abbreviated choices such as those used in the example, it may
be possible to have a navigation system using the <ul> tags. However, with the list system of
navigation on mobile devices, the best advice is, “Don’t even think about it!” Figure 8-2 shows
how the navigation takes up the entire window in a mobile device.
Clearly, as you can see in Figure 8-2, some other system of navigation is required so that the
topic can be viewed. The navigation system takes up the entire page. In fact, it looks more like
a site map, which I discuss later in this chapter, but it can’t be used in global navigation.
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153
Figure 8-2: List navigation crowds the display area on a mobile device.
Drop-down menus and global navigation

An alternative approach to global navigation using text links is to use elements that can
provide more information in a smaller place. One such element is the <select> tag. The
select element displays the first item in a list of options that can be seen only when the user
clicks on the select window that appears. The format is made up of a <select> tag along
with an <option> tag nested within the select container. Each option container
contains an object that is visible when the drop-down menu opens. The following snippet
shows the basic format:
<select id=”animals” name=”global1”>

<option value=”horses”>Horses</option>
<option value=”dogs”>Dogs</option>
...
</select>
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This can be a handy way to place all of a site’s links into a small area for use as a global menu.
You can nest as many <option> tags inside the <select> container as you want. In order
to see how this can be set up as a global navigation system, the following HTML5 script
(SelectNav.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5)
illustrates a simple example.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Drop-Down Menu</title>
</head>
<nav>
<label for=”animals”>Animals </label>
<option value=”horses”>Horses</option>
<option value=”dogs”>Dogs</option>
<option value=”cats”>Cats</option>
<option value=”rabbits”>Rabbits</option>
<option value=”raccons”>Raccoons</option>
</select>
<label for=”vegetables”>Vegetables </label>
<select id=”vegetables” name=”global2”>
<option value=”carrots”>Carrots</option>
154 <option value=”squash”>Squash</option>
<option value=”peas”>Peas</option>
<option value=”rice”>Rice</option>
<option value=”potatoes”>Potatoes</option>
</select>
<label for=”minerals”>Minerals </label>
<select id=”minerals” name=”global3”>
<option value=”tin”>Tin</option>
<option value=”gold”>Gold</option>
<option value=”copper”>Copper</option>
<option value=”iron”>Iron</option>
<option value=”mercury”>Mercury</option>
</select>
</nav>
<body>
</body>
</html>
With that many HTML5 tags, you might expect a much larger Web page. However, as Figure
8-3 shows, very little space is taken up.
The HTML5 code has no CSS3 to format the text, and as you can see, the default body font is
a serif font and the default menu font is sans-serif. When you use CSS3 for styling, work with
the <select> tag for style instead of the <option> tag. If you style the option element,
13_977279-ch08.indd 154 10/28/10 10:16 PM

you can style the font family with good results, but other styling is unpredictable between
different browsers.
Figure 8-3: Displaying menu choices with the <select> tag.
If the categories appear a bit shallow, you can add greater detail in an outline format using the
<optgroup> tag. With each tag, a new subgroup is added. You can nest them in several
levels if you wish. The following listing (Optgroup.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how the optgroup element is used in conjunc-
tion with the <select> and <option> tags.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<style type=”text/css”> 155
select {
background-color:#F2EFBD;
color:#657BA6;
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
}
</style>
<title>Stratified Drop-Down Menu</title>
</head>
<nav>
<label for=”animals”>Animals</label>
<optgroup label=”Dogs”>
<option value=”hounds”>Hounds</option>
<option value=”work”>Work</option>
<option value=”terrier”>Terriers</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label=”Horses”>
<option value=”race”>Race</option>
<option value=”work”>Work</option>
<option value=”show”>Show</option>
</optgroup>
<optgroup label=”Rabbits”>
<option value=”pets”>Pets</option>
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<option value=”pests”>Pests</option>
<option value=”easter”>Easter</option>
</optgroup>
</select>
</nav>
<body>
</body>
</html>
For some reason, different browsers have different displays of the category headings generated
by the optgroup element. Figure 8-4 shows how the same menu looks on different browsers.
Safari Firefox Chrome Opera Internet Explorer 9
156
Figure 8-4: Using the <optgroup> tag.
Of the four browsers tested, Firefox stands out as unique. The optgroup headings are
italicized and the color combinations are preserved when the menu opens. The other browsers
display the correct color scheme only when the menu is closed. (Will this give designers
another challenge? Yes!)
USING JAVASCRIPT TO CALL A LINKED PAGE

Any global navigation system needs a way to call different Web pages and the drop-down
menus need a way to call a selected item. Up to this point, the <a> tag has done a good job
of taking care of links, but you probably noticed the drop-down menus have no links. The
<select> tag needs to work with the form element (which is covered in detail in Chapter 14)
and a JavaScript function. (Chapter 12 has more details on getting started with and using
JavaScript.) On the HTML5 side, the following snippet shows the essentials:
<form name=”menuNow”>
<select id=”animals” name=”global1” onChange=”optionMenu()”>
<option value=”animals/horses.html”>Horses</option>
<option value=”animals/dogs.html”>Dogs</option>
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The names of the form and select elements are important because JavaScript uses the
names as a path to the selected option. (If you’re familiar with arrays, the options are all
treated as array elements.)
The JavaScript is placed in a separate file because if you’re going to be using it with a global
navigation system, you don’t want to have to rewrite it with every page. The following
JavaScript should be saved in a text file named globMenu.js.
function optionMenu()
{
var choice = document.menuNow.global1.selectedIndex;
var urlNow = document.menuNow.global1.options[choice].value;
window.location.href = urlNow;
}
What that reflects is the HTML5 Document Object Model (DOM). The document is the
Web page, menuNow is the name of the form element, global1 is the name of the select
element, and selectedIndex is the selected option. Because the selectedIndex is a
number between 0 and the number of options in the <select> tag container, it can be used
to choose the array element (option), which is selected. Whatever value is stored in the option
is passed to the variable named urlNow. For example, the following line has a relative URL of
animals/dogs.html:
<option value=”animals/dogs.html”>Dogs</option> 157
The final line in the JavaScript, window.location.href = urlNow, has the same
function as the following HTML5 line:
<a href=”animals/dogs.html”>
In this context, a different JavaScript function would have to be written for each <select>
tag because the function uses a specific reference to that tag (global1). More sophisticated
JavaScript could be developed to use variables for the different element names, but the
function employed here is relatively short and easier to implement.
To test this out yourself, create simple Web pages with the following names:
horses.html
dogs.html
cats.html
rabbits.html
raccoons.html
The Web pages can just have names on them — nothing fancy. Then, in the same directory,
enter the following HTML5 code (SelectNavJS.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5).
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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”globMenu.js” />
<title>Drop-Down Menu</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<nav>
<form name=”menuNow”>
<select id=”animals” name=”global1” onChange=”optionMenu()”>
<option value=”animals/horses.html”>Horses</option>
<option value=”animals/dogs.html”>Dogs</option>
<option value=”animals/cats.html”>Cats</option>
<option value=”animals/rabbits.html”>Rabbits</option>
<option value=”animals/raccoons.html”>Raccoons</option>
</select>
<label for=”vegetables”>Vegetables</label>
<select id=”vegetables” name=”global2”>
<option value=”carrots”>Carrots</option>
<option value=”squash”>Squash</option>
<option value=”peas”>Peas</option>
158 <option value=”rice”>Rice</option>
<option value=”potatoes”>Potatoes</option>
</select>
<label for=”minerals”>Minerals</label>
<select id=”minerals” name=”global3”>
<option value=”tin”>Tin</option>
<option value=”gold”>Gold</option>
<option value=”copper”>Copper</option>
<option value=”iron”>Iron</option>
<option value=”mercury”>Mercury</option>
</select>
</form>
</nav>
</header>
</article>
</body>
</html>
Test the page using with Google Chrome or Opera — at the time of this writing, those were
the only two browsers that had implemented this aspect of HTML5.
For the time being, you won’t be doing anything with the second two drop-down menus, but
at the end of the chapter you’ll be given an opportunity to complete them with a few additions
to the JavaScript file.
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CREATING CONSISTENCY
One of the most important features of a good navigation system is consistency. The user has
to be able to know where to find the navigation system no matter where she is in the site. If
one page has the navigation at the top and the next page does not, in the same site, users may
not know where they are relative to where they started or where they’re going. One of the
most misquoted pieces of wisdom about consistency can be found in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s
essay, “Self-Reliance.” By quoting only a part of Emerson’s thought, many people are misled to
believe that consistency is wicked. That famous misquote is “. . . consistency is the hobgoblin
of little minds. . . .” What Emerson fully wrote is, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of
little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great
soul has simply nothing to do.” The reason that the quote is important is that Emerson never
said that consistency is a bad thing. Foolish consistency is the problem — not consistency.
When it comes to navigation consistency is essential, and by all means avoid foolish consist-
ency. In other words, don’t put a bad navigation system together and then repeat it because
it’s consistent. As far as a great soul having nothing to do, that may be a good thing. With
consistency, you don’t have to reinvent the navigation system with every new page. A great
soul would have different consistencies for different audiences and types of sites; but within
the site, the consistency is constant.
In her work on grouping elements, Jennifer Tidwell talks about using color-coded sections to
assist users in keeping track of where they are. Using colors, you can add clarity to global
navigation. The three global categories that have been selected for navigation — animal,
vegetable, and mineral — can be a good example of multiple-consistency (each menu is 159
consistent with the other menus). For the animal category, you might use brown tones; for the
vegetable category, green tones; and for the mineral category, nickel tones. Figure 8-5 shows
an example where the global navigation is in place and the different pages have a color scheme
that differentiates them from one another and at the same time places each in the appropriate
grouping.
Figure 8-5: Global navigation and color grouping.
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In Figure 8-5 note that the global navigation incorporates the color palette of the respective
categories. It would be foolish consistency to insist that the color schemes be the same.
However, the global navigation is consistent and each page is consistent with the other pages
in the same category.
VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL NAVIGATION

Besides using the horizontal plane along the top and bottom of a page for navigation, inter-
face designers often reserve part of the side of a Web page for navigation. Figure 8-6 shows
the general design for this approach.
Global links
Content area
Topic links
Figure 8-6: Vertical and horizontal navigation.

160
When using horizontal and vertical link planes, the user can see all the global links and the
links for the current topic simultaneously. More of the viewing area is taken up by the
navigation system, but with the larger monitors becoming standard on computers, this isn’t
that much of a problem. With electronic tablets like the iPad that have smaller screens, it cuts
into the usable viewing area, but not a great deal. However, on mobile phones, especially
when viewed vertically, the content space is severely reduced.
To create an area for a vertical link area with HTML5, you just need to set up a two-column
page below the area generally reserved for the logo and global navigation bar.
APPLYING CSS3 PSEUDO-CLASSES

When dealing with more complex navigation systems, you may want to consider CSS3
pseudo-classes. These are class definitions added to an element. For navigation, the following
four pseudo-classes are important because they’re associated with the <a> tag:
link
visited
hover
active
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Each has the same formatting as other elements, but they’re declared with the element name
separated by a colon. For example, the following code snippet shows how the hover pseudo-
class is styled:
a:hover
{
color:#A69055;
}
When that code is added to a style sheet, whenever the mouse hovers over the link (<a> tag),
it will change the color to the hover definition. Of course the colors defined for the <a> tag
have to be different from the hover, but you can add subtle or blatant signals to the user that
the text is a link. Likewise, you can change other features using the pseudo-classes. The
following examples will give you an idea:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
a {
font-size:11px;
}
a:link {
color:#cc0000; 161
}
a:hover {
font-size:14px;
}
a:visited {
color:#00cc00;
}
a:active {
background-color:#ffff00;
}
</style>
<title>Pseudo Classes in Links</title>
</head>
<body>
<a href=”#”>Click here</a>
</body>
</html>
When using pseudo-classes for navigation, you want to keep the user in mind. Adding strange
effects with pseudo-classes can be fun, but you need to ask whether the effects will assist or
confuse users. If you can add an effect that users associate with making choices, then that
13_977279-ch08.indd 161 10/28/10 10:16 PM

effect is likely to be helpful. For example, making the font larger when the mouse is over it was
an idea taken from the Macintosh dock where icons enlarge when the mouse passes over
them. However, you might want to ask whether turning the link another color and changing
the text decoration is a good idea for a visited class. Does it really help the user? Also, try it on
different browsers and see if the results are consistent. Remember that just because you can
change a link’s appearance doesn’t mean you have to.
UNDERSTANDING THE HTML5 MECHANICS OF VERTICAL NAVIGATION

The most important part of creating a vertical section to use for navigation in your site is
sectioning a portion of the page where you can place the links. This example uses the
<aside> tag to set off the vertical navigation. However, because it’s navigation, the <nav>
tag is used as well so that any JavaScript references to the Document Object Model (DOM)
can recognize the section as one used for navigation. The following listing (VertHor.html
in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*141919,2D2B21,A69055,C9B086,FFB88C --Japanese Art*/
body {
162 color:#2D2B21;
background-color:#C9B086;
font-size:12px;
}
.content {
display:table-cell;
width:600px;
padding:15px;
}
aside {
display:table-cell;
width:100px;
background-color:#FFB88C;
padding-right:5px;
}
h1 {
font-family:Papyrus;
color:#2D2B21;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
color:#A69055;
}
a {
font-size:10px;
13_977279-ch08.indd 162 10/28/10 10:16 PM

color:#141919;
}
a:hover {
color:#A69055;
}
.centerNav {
text-align:center;
}
.indentNav {
margin-left:15px;
}
</style>
<title>Web Services Galore</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src=”designLogo.png” width=”64” height=”66” align=”left”>
<nav class=”centerNav”> <a href=”#”>Graphic Design</a> | <a
href=”#”>Development</a> | <a href=”#”>Interface Design</a> |
<a href=”#”>Site Architecture</a></nav>
<header>
<h1> Honorable Web Services</h1>
</header>
<aside>
<nav class=”indentNav”> <a href=”#”>Overview</a><br> 163
<br>
<a href=”#”>Navigation</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>RSS Subscription</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>Iframes</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>CSS3 Navigation Styles</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>Audience Identification</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>Focus Group Testing</a><br>
<br>
<a href=”#”>Adding Mobile Options</a><br>
<br>
</nav>
</aside>
<section class=”content”>
<header>
<h2>Interface Design</h2>
</header>
Honorable Web Services has full interface design services. You may choose from the
following list, selecting just the services you want.
<ul>
<li>Simple text link interfaces</li>
13_977279-ch08.indd 163 10/28/10 10:16 PM

<li>Drop-down menus </li>

<li>Button links</li>
<li>Datalist links</li>
<li>Iframe navigation</li>
<li>Navigation styling</li>
</ul>
Select one of the links on the left to see more information. Also be sure to check
out our services in graphic design, development, and architecture in the menu along
the top of the page.</section>
</body>
</html>
When you run this program, you can see that although it provides a wide variety of user
choices, it’s clear. The global navigation along the top provides all the main choices. Then on
each page within a global collection, users are able to select choices specific to the selected
topic. Figure 8-7 shows what you can expect to see when you test the program in an HTML5
browser on a computer screen.
164
Figure 8-7: Providing horizontal and vertical navigation choices.
13_977279-ch08.indd 164 10/28/10 10:16 PM

When you look at the same page on a mobile device, the space taken up on the left where the
vertical menu has been placed pushes the content downward. Users have to scroll more. Also
notice that the horizontal menu along the top is pushed in so that it now takes up two roles.
Figure 8-8 shows the results on a mobile browser.
For mobile devices, two-tier horizontal navigation bars — that do not push content below the
viewing area — may better serve you. As you can see in comparing Figures 8-7 and 8-8, the
horizontal navigation bar breaks into two tiers in the mobile device without taking up much
room. However, the vertical navigation bar pushes into the content area and forces more
content (including the navigation bar itself) below the viewing area.
165
Figure 8-8: Vertical and horizontal menus on a mobile device.
USING GRAPHIC ICONS IN NAVIGATION

In addition to using text to link to other pages, you also can use graphic files — JPEG, PNG,
or GIF. Using graphic images for linking can help users quickly find what they’re looking for.
For example, a right or left arrow quickly can be identified as linking to the next or last page.
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Such images transcend language differences and help a wider audience base. Likewise,
younger children are more likely to understand certain symbols than they are certain words.
The format for using images for identifying links is the same as it is for text. However, instead
of placing text in an <a> container, you use an image reference. The following code snippet
shows the basic format:
<a href=”page2.html”><img src=”arrowRight.jpg”></a>
Users see an arrow icon and click it instead of a text message. Often, designers will use both
text and an image to send users to another page, as shown in the next snippet:
<a href=”page2.html”><img src=”arrowRight.jpg”>Next Page</a>
Also, some designers create icons with text embedded in the symbol, as shown in Figure 8-9.
Figure 8-9: Link image with text.
One advantage designers find in using graphic text is that they can use any font they want
166 without fear that the user won’t have that particular font in his system. It also helps to keep
users from getting lost because graphic symbols with text are easy for the user to spot and
understand.
SINGLE-PAGE WEB SITES WITH IFRAMES

Think of a Web site as a loading zone. Whenever, you click a link, you load another page —
graphics and all. Sometimes, all you want to do is load just one thing. That saves the user from
having to wait for all the other stuff to load or reload. If you know a bit of JavaScript and Ajax,
you can do that, but what about with just HTML5? The answer is yes!
This section examines how to link to graphics and change the graphic in an iframe. When
creating applications designed specifically for mobile devices, you want to use as little
bandwidth as possible. By changing just one thing on a Web page, the mobile device just has
to load or reload a single item, so the response time is less.
LINKING TO A GRAPHIC
Generally, when we think of adding graphics to a page, we think of the <img> tag. After
all, that tag is what we use to place graphics on a Web page. However, you also can use the
<a href> tag to load a graphic. Instead of assigning a Web page path to the href assignment,
assign a graphic. For example, the following line of code loads a blank page with a graphic:
<a href=”myGraphic.jpg”>My Graphic</a>
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When users click on the link text, the current page disappears, and the graphic appears in the
upper-left corner of a new page.
Placing a graphic in an iframe element works just like placing a Web page in an iframe (see
Chapter 7). The link is to the target within the iframe and instead another Web page. That
means that the current Web page stays in place, and the graphic opens in the iframe.
The following script uses graphic icons for the navigation. However, instead of navigating to
another page, the navigation places a different graphic in the main viewing area — an iframe.
By making miniature versions of the graphic to be displayed (called thumbnails), users see
their selection first in the navigation design. That is, the thumbnails guide users to the
full-size view.
MAKING AND USING THUMBNAIL ICONS

To prepare for the application, first create full-size versions and thumbnails of all the graphics.
The full-size graphics and the thumbnails should all be the same size. In the following
example, the full-size graphics are set to 250 x 312 pixels, and the thumbnails are set to 63 x 79
pixels. Thumbnails need to be small enough to serve as navigation buttons but large enough
for users to get an idea of what the larger graphics will look like. Notice that the iframe
dimensions are the same as the full-size graphics. Once the graphics are prepared, they’re
placed in separate directories for the thumbnails and full-size graphics. (The names, thumbs
and portraits are used in the following example [IFrameNavigation.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5].) 167
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*F2CF8D,401E01,F2AA6B,8C3503,F28D52*/
body {
background-color:#F2CF8D;
color:#401E01;
font-size:11px;
}
h1 {
font-family:”Harrington”, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size:36px;
color:#8C3503;
margin-left:10px;
}
h4 {
color:#8C3503;
margin-left:86px;
}
aside {
13_977279-ch08.indd 167 10/28/10 10:16 PM

margin-left:10px;
}
h5 {
margin-right:40px;
}
</style>
<title>Iframe Navigation</title>
</head>
<body>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Portrait Studio</h1>
</header>
<aside>
<iframe name=”fullSize” width=”250”, height=”312” seamless src=”portraits/man.
jpg”></iframe>
</aside>
<section>
<nav> <a href=”portraits/man.jpg” target=”fullSize”><img src=”thumbs/thumbMan.
jpg”></a> <a href=”portraits/woman.png” target=”fullSize”><img src=”thumbs/thumb-
Woman.png”></a> <a href=”portraits/boy.jpg” target=”fullSize”><img src=”thumbs/
168 thumbBoy.jpg”></a> <a href=”portraits/girl.png” target=”fullSize”><img src=”thumbs/
thumbGirl.png”></a>
<h4>Select portrait</h4>
</nav>
</section>
<section>
<h5> All of the creations are by a little-known artist, <b>Mo Digli Anni</b>,
from Spunky Puddle, Ohio. By clicking on the thumbnail buttons, you can send the
image to the larger viewing window. </h5>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
When you test the example, you’ll see the man’s portrait and then the four thumbnails of the
man, woman, boy, and girl beneath the image inside the iframe. Figure 8-10 shows the page
on a computer monitor screen.
As you can see in Figure 8-10, users are instructed to click on the thumbnail buttons to view
the different “portraits.” The interface is fairly intuitive and users know what to expect when
they click on one of the graphic buttons. The best part is that only the graphic for the selected
portrait is loaded into the iframe instead of loading a new page with all the graphic buttons
and other page materials.
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169
Figure 8-10: Images used for navigation.
USING IFRAMES ON MOBILE DEVICES

In testing the application on a mobile device, the results depended on the HTML5 mobile
browser in use. Figure 8-11 shows the Opera Mini browser on the left; as you can see, the text
beneath the images is formatted to be readable. However, at the time of testing, the Opera
Mini seemed to reload the entire page as each button was selected.
The image on the right in Figure 8-11 is from the Safari mobile browser. The text at the
bottom didn’t follow the CSS3 formatting and ran off to the right side of the screen. However,
the images in the iframe worked perfectly, and as each thumbnail button was clicked, the
full-size image loaded without reloading the entire page.
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170 Figure 8-11: Different mobile browsers handle text differently.
Several different kinds of businesses and social networking sites use similar applications. For
example, professional photographers use thumbnails of their photographs that users click to
view the full-size images. Likewise, social networking sites can use similar pages to display
and load pictures of each users’ friends without having to leave the page.
Because mobile devices have such small display areas, using iframes in navigation designs is
quite helpful. Trying to click small text links can be difficult, but as you can see in both mobile
browsers in Figure 8-11, the graphic buttons are easy to see and tap for loading the full-size
image or other materials into the iframe space.
TAKE THE WHEEL

This chapter has two different challenges:
JavaScript challenge: The first challenge is to complete the JavaScript linkage in the
section “Using JavaScript to Call a Linked Page.” The HTML5 page named Select
NavJS.html has three different <select> tags — one each for animals, vegetables,
and minerals. Only the animal <select> tag contains a JavaScript event function. By
adding two more functions to the JavaScript file (globMenu.js) that are similar to the
first function but with a different name, you should be able to create functions for the
<select> tags for the vegetable and mineral menus. (It’s basically a matter of copying
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and pasting the original function and pasting it twice and then just changing the function
name.) Then, just add the OnChange attribute to the two other <select> tags. The
second two <select> tags have names of global2 and global3 that you can add to
the JavaScript functions — notice where global1 is located in the original JavaScript.
(Don’t worry if you can’t do this exercise! Without knowing JavaScript, it can be tricky.)
Iframe challenge: You can put as many iframe elements in a page as you want. Suppose
you want to compare different sets of objects — cars, clothes, or mobile devices. For
example, let’s say that you were building a site to compare different models of Fords and
Toyotas. The Fords appear in the left iframe and the Toyotas in the right. Below each
iframe, are links that bring up different types of cars — economy, sedans, hybrid, vans,
trucks, and SUVs. Each brand of automobile has links beneath it so that you can bring up
comparable ones — such as two hybrids. See if you can create such a site — using content
of your choice. (By the way, Edward Tufte, the information design authority, strongly
urges comparative information to be presented so that users can view it in the same
eyespan — what you can see in a single view.)
Both of these challenges use the materials in this chapter, and they can be applied to many
different applications.
171
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13_977279-ch08.indd 172 10/28/10 10:16 PM
III
PART
III MEDIA IN
HTML5
Chapter 9: Images
Chapter 10: Sound
Chapter 11: Video
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SMASHING HTML5
9
CHAPTER
9 IMAGES
ONE OF THE most exciting features of HTML5 likely to be used, how to place them where you
is the ability to use Scalable Vector Graphics want on your Web page, and how to optimize
(.svg) files. Artists who use programs like them for Web use. Much of this chapter, out of
Adobe Illustrator that create vector graphics can necessity, must use graphic applications that
save their files as .svg files and put them right you may not have. These applications include
into their Web pages. Because .svg files contain Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe
vector graphics, images can be made larger or Fireworks. However, you can substitute other
smaller without losing their resolution as applications you may own, such as Microsoft
bitmapped graphics do. However, you still can Paint or Corel Draw. Finally, for drawn graphics
use your favorite bitmapped graphics in .jpg, and photographs, you’re going to have to rely on
.gif, or .png format for static display. your own skills, both in terms of artistic abilities
and ability to use graphic drawing programs. (In
This chapter seeks to clarify using graphics on the a pinch, you can download public-domain image
Web in terms of the main types of images that are files from the Web in the file type you need.)
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THE BASICS OF HTML5 IMAGE FILES

A fundamental truth about graphic files on the Web is that they have weight. Weight, in the
context of an HTML5 page, refers to file size measured in terms of the number of pixels stored
in an image. Generally speaking, larger and higher-quality images have more pixels. The
consequence of size for the Web is that heavier graphics take longer to move over the Internet
and load into an HTML page. If you’ve ever stared at a Web page waiting for a big graphic to
load, you know that it can be frustrating and cause your mouse button finger to start twitch-
ing, wanting to hit the Back button on the browser.
By understanding something about the different file types and how to optimize their size, you
can better adjust the files and get the most out of images on your page — both in terms of how
they look and how long they take to load.
FORMATS AND PIXELS MATTER

What matters most on a screen is how an image looks. The appearance of an image depends
to a great extent on the monitor’s resolution. The higher the resolution of a monitor or mobile
device’s display, the better the image is going to look. At the same time, a graphic with more
information is going to look better than a graphic with less information. That also means that
a graphic that takes up more screen space is going to require more information than a smaller
image and take longer to load.
176 To better see what needs to be understood to create good-looking graphics that don’t take up
much bandwidth and load quickly requires a closer look at the different types of Web graphic
formats. The next four subsections provide a brief overview of each format.
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

Vector graphics are drawings created using mathematical formulas that specify points and
then draw lines between the points. Bitmapped graphics place color “bits” at different points.
For example, if you draw a straight line in vector graphics, the computer takes Point A and
Point B and draws a line between them. The same line drawn with bitmapped graphics
specifies all the points to place bits to make up the line. (That explanation oversimplifies the
process but provides a rough idea of the difference between vector and bitmapped graphics.)
Because vector graphics use formulas, when a graphic is changed, it doesn’t become pixilated
as bitmapped graphics do. Imagine a line 100 pixels long that you want to change to 400 pixels
long. With vector graphics, all that has to be changed is the distance between two points. With
bitmapped graphics, you have to add an additional 300 pixels. If you try to change a bit-
mapped graphic line in a Web page by changing its width from 100 pixels long to 400 pixels
long, it stretches out the original 100 pixels to cover a width of 400 pixels, and that’s why it
looks pixilated.
Another important new feature of SVG graphics is the ability to change different aspects of
the image dynamically. Using JavaScript, you can take an .svg file displayed on a Web page
and dynamically change it — not by switching figures but by actually changing a parameter.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
Fortunately, some recently provided tools help create separate regions to be changed and
generate the code needed to make the changes (see the section, “Application for Dynamic
SVG files from Adobe Illustrator CS5 files” later in this chapter.)
Graphic Information Format (GIF)

The good thing about GIF files is that they can produce some of the smallest files and they
support background transparency. In large part, that’s because they can handle only 256 colors
and obtain transparency by turning off one of the colors. The set of colors known as “Web safe”
are based on the fact that GIF files can handle only 256 colors. This format is extremely
limiting for designers who want a larger color palette, and the format is not recommended for
digital photographs other than black-and-white ones with limited gray tones.
One format for GIF files is an animated one. If an animated GIF is loaded, it begins playing —
sequentially flipping through the images — displaying animated actions. Because the ani-
mated GIF is contained in a single file, it can be loaded directly into an HTML5 page using
the <img> tag. Typical animated GIF files are relatively short. Otherwise, the pack of files
within the animated GIF file is too large for quick loading.
Besides the limited number of colors available for GIF creations, CompuServe and Unisys
held a copyright on the format and set up a licensing requirement. Rather than worry about
getting sued, most developers simply opted for other graphic formats.
177
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
Most digital photographs on the Web use the JPEG format. Likewise, any more complex
graphics with several colors and shades prefer JPEG for preserving the look intended by the
photographer or artist. As a result, most of the images on Web sites that display services or
products are in the JPEG format. JPEG files tend to be larger than GIFs, but with the
increased bandwidth on the Internet, the size is not as problematic as it once was.
The JPEG format doesn’t support transparency like GIF files, and it doesn’t have an animated
format. Further, JPEG files use what is called lossy compression, which can reduce the image
fidelity. Compared to lossless compression that supports an exact replication of the original
data, lossy compression is considered more of an approximation of the original data that
makes up the image.
The standard JPEG format is open source and requires no licensing permission. Interestingly,
some patented features for JPEG can require licensing, but these features have not been
included in most JPEG files so developers and designers can use JPEG format freely.
Portable Network Graphics (PNG)

In part, the PNG format was developed as an alternative to the patent license requirements in
the GIF format. However, the development was also motivated by the desire to have more
than 256 colors and a lossless display. The PNG format also supports transparency and an
alpha channel.
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At one time, not all browsers supported the PNG format and some developers didn’t use it,
despite its many advantages. However those days are long gone, and any browser that sup-
ports HTML5 will support PNG. As a result, any HTML5 developer or designer can use PNG
files without fear of the browser not being able to load them.
PRESERVING LAYERS IN WEB GRAPHICS

One of the big advantages of PNG files is that they preserve layers. Designers who use tools
like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Fireworks, and Adobe Photoshop organize their graphics in
layers. A simple application of a layer is labeling a photograph. For example, suppose you
have a photograph that you label and save as a JPEG file, as shown in Figure 9-1.
178
Figure 9-1: A JPEG image with embedded label.
After you finish the graphic and save it as a JPEG file, you realize that it’s mislabeled. It’s a
morning glory, not a daisy. Because the file is saved in JPG format, the layer with the Daisy
label is not preserved. When you edit the file, you’ll find that the label is fused with the rest of
the graphic.
With a PNG file, not only are the layers preserved, but if you use a transparent background, it
picks up the background of your Web page, and the transparency is preserved. Figure 9-2
shows that the simple swapping of layers fixes the label problem and provides a transparent
background.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
With multilayered graphics, preserving the final Web image in PNG format will save editing
time. In this particular example, in a JPEG file, erasing the wrong label and replacing it with
the correct one in a space below the main image is not too difficult. However, with more
complex graphics that include several layers, rather than having to redo the entire graphic,
designers can just edit the layer.
179
Figure 9-2: PNG file with preserved layer and transparent background (shown in a graphic editor).
The only unfortunate problem in preserving layers in a PNG file is that it increases the size of
the file. The JPEG file is only 33 kilobytes (KB) and the PNG is 225 KB. However, in the next
section, you’ll see how to reduce the size of a file so that you may be able to maintain layers
and still have a file that loads quickly.
WORKING WITH GRAPHIC FILE SIZES

Given the different kinds of Web graphic files that can be loaded, the temptation is to use the
type that has the smallest file size. Indeed, in some cases, that is the way to go. However, when
your site needs the highest quality, the trick is to see how to get the highest quality with the
lowest bandwidth use — the format with the smallest settings. Unless you’re using SVG
format, remember the key Web bitmapped graphic dictum:
Do not ever change a bitmapped graphic’s dimensions with HTML5 attributes within an
element.
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You can change a graphic’s dimensions all you want with a graphics application like Adobe
Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. But when you change the size of a bitmapped graphic using
HTML5 attributes like width and height, your results, especially when you attempt to enlarge
an object, tend to either pixilate or crush the object. Figure 9-3 shows three GIF images, and
you can see that the enlarged graphic has jaggy edges and the pixels are beginning to appear
as little boxes.
Figure 9-3: An enlarged GIF using HTML5 attributes.
The middle figure is the original one with original dimensions. Had a graphic tool been used
to enlarge the image, it would appear un-aliased (without jagged edges). You can see the same
180
thing happen with digital photographs, as shown in Figure 9-4.
The original image is on the far left. The enlarged image shows jagged edges and the image is
beginning to blur. The image on the far right is so small, it’s difficult to see much detail and
determine the extent to which it appears crushed (pixels pushed together to distort). Use the
following program (ImageDistortion.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5) to test some of your own graphics.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Web graphic distortion</title>
</head>
<body>

<img src=”photo.jpg” width=”100” height=”127”>

<img src=”photo.jpg” width=”400” height=”508”>

<img src=”photo.jpg” width=”50” height=”63.5”>
</body>
</html>
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
181
Figure 9-4: Enlarged JPG digital photo using HTML5 attributes to enlarge and shrink.
To find the width and height of a graphic, use the mouse pointer to select the image file and
then
In Windows, right-click it and select Properties → Details and read the Width and
Height values. You can find the dimensions of a graphic file by moving the mouse over
the file.
In Mac OS X, Ctrl+click the image file and select Get Info. In the More Info section view
the Dimensions showing Width x Height.
Most Web tools, such as Dreamweaver, provide code hinting at the image dimensions.
Likewise, virtually all graphic-editing programs show the image’s dimensions when the file
is loaded.
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USING GRAPHIC APPLICATIONS TO MODIFY IMAGE FILE SIZE

When discussing an image’s size, two different meanings are used:
The size of the file in terms of its dimensions

The number of bytes it takes up
Usually, in this discussion the context should make it clear which sense of size is being used,
but for the most part, the term size refers to the number of bytes in a file, and dimensions
refers to the size of the image on the screen.
Adobe Photoshop is a commonly used application for making adjustments to graphic size and
quality. Further, Photoshop provides visual information that designers and developers can use
to decide how much byte reduction the graphic can take before its appearance suffers. Figures
9-5 and 9-9 show this process. (Figures 9-6 through 9-8 show information about the files and
how they appear on a Web page.)
182
Figure 9-5: Image and size information display in four-way view.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
Changing JPEG file sizes

Beginning with a very large TIFF file that must be converted to either a PNG, JPEG, or GIF
file, the file-editing process begins with three levels of quality — maximum, medium, and low.
Figure 9-5 shows the original TIFF file and three JPEG renderings.
The original TIFF image in the top-left corner is over a half a megabyte, and it needs to be
slimmed down significantly and converted into a format that HTML5 browsers can read. The
top-right figure in JPEG format is set to the maximum quality — 100. On the bottom row, the
bottom-left figure is low quality set to 2, and the bottom-right figure is considered medium
quality, set at 60. The smallest Web file is only 8.6K and the largest is 127.1K. A quick glance
shows very little difference with this particular image.
To get a more definitive idea, the two extremes of Web quality settings are saved to disk. Then
(on a Macintosh) each is viewed for the size settings as shown in Figure 9-6.
183
Figure 9-6: Checking image file properties.
In looking at Figure 9-6, you can see that both have identical dimensions (432 x 343), but one
has 12 KB of information and the other has 139 KB. The reason for beginning adjustments by
comparing the best and the worst quality as implied in the file size is that visual differences
are more apparent. Perception studies have found that examining minute differences tends to
gloss over those differences, whereas extreme differences are clear, so when you begin making
adjustments, it’s better to start with the big differences. Figure 9-7 shows the two files on a
Web page.
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Figure 9-7: High-quality and low-quality JPEG files on a Web page.
As you can see, the lowest-quality image (left) and highest-quality image (right) are very
similar. In the context of other materials on a Web page, some quality differences may appear.
However, images that have the characteristics of those two shown in Figure 9-7 don’t suffer
much in appearance on the Web when file size is reduced.
184
A bigger difference with JPEG files sizes can be seen with digital photos. In Figure 9-8, the
photo on the left is the lowest quality (8K) and the one on the right (115K) is the highest, with
corresponding file sizes.
Figure 9-8: Low- and high-quality digital photos in JPEG format.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
The differences between the two photos with the different settings is minimal, but the
difference in the kilobytes is quite large — 8K versus 115K. On a video monitor, the image in
Figure 9-8 on the left has poorer definition around the edges, but if the primary audience has
very low bandwidth available, cutting down the size of JPEG files won’t significantly cut down
on the quality of the image.
The image in Figure 9-8 was photographed with a Webcam, and digital photographs taken
with higher-quality cameras show far more detail that may be lost with the loss of information
taken out when a file size is reduced. However, very high-quality digital photos have to be
reduced significantly in size to be practical for the Web.
Good lighting saves bandwidth

Regardless of the kind of camera you’re using, a well-lighted image is going to look better than
a poorly lighted one. Everything we see (and your camera sees) is the reflection of light off
objects. If you pay just a little attention to the lighting of your subject, your digital images will
look better.
You don’t need a lighting studio to take good photographs, but by adding light correctly, your
digital photo is going to look better, and you’ll be able to remove more information from the
file and still have it look good enough to put on the Web. Here are some tips:
Use diffused light. If you take a picture on a cloudy day, the pictures generally turn out
better. That’s because the clouds diffuse the light. (If you’ve ever seen those photos where 185
the unfortunate subjects have to line up and squint into the sun, they not only look
squinty, the photos are overexposed.) For indoors, aim a light at white paper and let it
bounce the light onto the subject. A crumpled up piece of aluminum foil flattened out
does a good job of diffusing light.
Use natural light where possible. If you’re taking indoor photos, open the curtains and
blinds and let in the natural light.
Changing PNG and GIF file sizes

Turning now to changing file sizes with PNG and GIF files, the differences tend to be more
significant with the reduction of file size and the accompanying information that is removed.
Take a look at Figure 9-9, and you can immediately see that the different settings have
different quality levels.
In Figure 9-9, the top two images are GIF files and the bottom two are PNG. When GIF files
are reduced, they lose colors. The top-left image has only 32 colors and the one on the right
has 256 (which isn’t a whole lot either). In comparing the sizes of the two GIF files, the one on
the top-left is only half the one on the right. Compare that with the different quality levels
using JPEG files in Figure 9-5.
The two PNG files are labeled PNG-24 (left) and PNG-8 (right). The PNG-8 format has only
128 colors, while PNG-24 can handle millions of colors. The 8 and 24 refer to 8-bit and 24-bit
color processing. In a nutshell, PNG-24 is of a higher quality.
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186
Figure 9-9: Changing PNG and GIF file sizes.
Changing SVG file sizes

Unlike the bitmapped graphics, changing SVG graphic sizes is simple and doesn’t hurt the
look of the image. The following Web page code shows a 500 x 400 .svg file displayed in
different sizes determined by the width and height attributes: The following script (SVG.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) uses a single
.svg file to display many different sizes without distortion.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>SVG Test</title>
</head>
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
<body style=”background-color:#BAD9CB” >


<img src=”logo500x400.svg” width=100 height=80>
<img src=”logo500x400.svg” width=300 height=240><br>

</body>
</html>
At the time of this writing, Firefox did not use the <img> tag with .svg files but required the
<object> tag instead. The Opera browser worked with both formats. Figure 9-10 shows the
results. As you can see, the logo in Figure 9-10 looks the same no matter what size it’s dis-
played in.
187
Figure 9-10: An SVG image changed by changing attributes with no distortion.
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Grayscale on Internet Explorer

One interesting note in working through file sizes is the use of a special CSS property recog-
nized only by Internet Explorer. Some designers use grayscale settings to reduce the size of
their graphics or for the effect of grayscale. If you want an interesting option using Microsoft
Internet Explorer, you can write a little CSS code to convert color files to grayscale. Use the
following snippet in a style definition:
img {
filter:gray;
}
</style>
Figure 9-11 shows a color figure (Figure 9-8) that is turned into a grayscale using CSS only.
188
Figure 9-11: Using Internet Explorer CSS grayscale filter.
Using this technique is a quick way to see how the figure looks in a grayscale before rendering
it in a grayscale mode. If you’re updating a site, and you want to view the images on the page
in grayscale, you can add the CSS and test it on Internet Explorer first. If you want to keep the
file size down and the quality up, a JPEG image in grayscale instead of color will cut the file
size in half.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
PLACING IMAGES AND CREATING FLEXIBLE

WEB PAGES
The <img> tag is the primary one used to call up graphics, and although CSS3 is the primary
tool for getting things to go where you want on a Web page, you can use certain <img>
attributes to help out. This section examines options you have for placing text where you want
it to go on your Web page and how to use certain key attributes with the <img> tag.
IMAGE PLACEMENT WITH THE ALIGN ATTRIBUTE

To start looking at placement, consider the align attribute of the <img> tag. The one
advantage is that there is no easier way to quickly position the image relative to the text. The
following script (ImagePlacement.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/
go/smashinghtml5) illustrates this.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*048ABF,049DBF,F2F2F2,595959,0D0D0D*/
body {
color:#0D0D0D;
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; 189
}
h1 {
color:#595959;
background-color:#049DBF;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
color:#048ABF;
}
</style>
<title>Simple Placement</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Web Developer’s Gym</h1>
</header>
<section>
<header>
<h2>Developer’s Workout</h2>
</header>
<figure> <img src=”webDeveloper.gif” width=”250” height=”263” align=”left”
align=”workout”> </figure>
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You know you’ve been thinking about it. Isn’t it about time you started working
on your <alt> and tags? Build up your elements and attributes in HTML5 at the
Web Developer’s Gym. Once you get going, you can add a little <canvas> tag
work and get into some serious CSS3. The gym is open 24/7 for your convenience—and
you can access it anywhere worldwide! All your friends have joined, and just look
at them—they’re even adding video to their Web pages! You can do it, too! Don’t let
another day go by with you wishing that you could be a Web developer. Start today!
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
The right and left placement of the image is simple. All that’s required is the assignment of
“left” and “right” values to the align attribute. Figure 9-12 shows the placement of the
image in both the left and right positions.
190
Figure 9-12: Image placement with the align attribute.
In Figure 9-12, the page on the right looks okay, but the page on the left jams the text right up
against the image. Also, the page is wholly dependent on the user’s page settings and size. In
other words, using the align attribute for placing images can make your page look awful.
Figure 9-13 shows two other views of the same page that transform its look.
In Figure 9-13, the figure on the left shows the text scattered all over the page, while the figure
on the right, a mobile device, shows the image just fine, but the text is just one word wide,
snaking along the side of the picture. The rest is below the view area.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
Figure 9-13: Different views of a page.
FLEXIBLE IMAGE SIZE WITH A LITTLE JAVASCRIPT

In Chapter 12, you’ll understand this information better, but I need JavaScript in this section
to show how your pages can be more flexible by having different-size images. JavaScript has a
little property called navigator.appVersion. When that property is placed into a script,
you can find out information about the hardware being used to load the Web page. If you find
out that the page is being loaded into a mobile device, instead of loading the full-size image
into the Web page, it loads the smaller one.
To make this work, take the same GIF file used for the original Web page created in the 191
previous section, and make a second one about one-third the size of the original. Create a
folder, and name it flexImages, and place both the large and small GIF files. Name the
large file, WebDeveloper.gif and the smaller one lilWebDeveloper.gif, and place
them both in the flexImages folder. Then enter the following program (ImageFlex
Size.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) and save
it in the same directory as the flexImages folder.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
var envir=navigator.appVersion;
envir=envir.substring(5,11);
var imageNow=new Image();
var showNow;
function showImage()
{
if(envir==”iPhone” || envir==”(iPhon”)
{
showNow=”flexImages/lilWebDeveloper.gif”;
}
else
{
showNow=”flexImages/WebDeveloper.gif”;
}
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imageNow.src=showNow;
document.pix.src=imageNow.src;
}
</script>
/*048ABF,049DBF,F2F2F2,595959,0D0D0D*/
body {
color:#0D0D0D;
}
h1 {
color:#595959;
background-color:#049DBF;
text-align:center;
}
h2 {
color:#048ABF;
}
img {
padding:5px;
}
</style>
192 <title>Flexible Image Size</title>
</head>
<body onload=”showImage()”>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Web Developer’s Gym</h1>
</header>
<section>
<header>
<h2>Developer’s Workout</h2>
</header>
<figure> <img src=”flexImages/WebDeveloper.gif” name=”pix” align=”left”> </
figure>
You know you’ve been thinking about it. Isn’t it about time you started working
on your <alt> and tags? Build up your elements and attributes in HTML5 at the
Web Developer’s Gym. Once you get going, you can add a little <canvas> tag
work and get into some serious CSS3. The gym is open 24/7 for your convenience—and
you can access it anywhere worldwide! All your friends have joined, and just look
at them—they’re even adding video to their Web pages! You can do it, too! Don’t let
another day go by with you wishing that you could be a Web developer. Start today!
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
First, try out the program on your computer. You should see exactly what you saw when you
originally tested it (refer to Figure 9-12). Now, try it out in a mobile browser. Instead of a large
image pushing all the text to one side, you see a smaller image surrounded by text, just like
the one on your computer. That’s because the Web page was able to use the JavaScript to
determine whether the page was loaded by an iPhone or some other platform or device.
Place the Web page file and both of the images in their folder into the same directory on a
server. When you test it, it looks like it was made for the iPhone, but it was really made for the
iPhone or any other device. Using this and other JavaScript code, you can do a lot more with
HTML5 than you can with just HTML5 by itself.
193
Figure 9-14: Displaying a small graphic for a mobile device.
The JavaScript used in the example is as minimalist as possible. However, the logic of it can be
outlined as follows:
Place the contents of navigator.appVersion into a variable named envir (short for
environment).
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Because navigator.appVersion generates a long description, get only the part of the
results that either shows iPhone or not.
Create a new image object named imageNow.
Initialize a variable named showNow (that you’ll use in the function).
Create a function that asks, “Is this an iPhone environment or not?” If it is an iPhone
environment, then use the small graphic; otherwise, use the big graphic. (In an Opera
Mini quirk, JavaScript returns “ (iPhon” as the first six characters of navigator.
appVersion; so, the code has to query whether it found “ (iPhon” or “iPhone” —
this goes to show just how accommodating JavaScript can be.)
Of course, there are a lot more types of mobile devices available, and you’d have to change the
JavaScript code to add more to the list of mobile devices besides iPhone, but the logic is the
same — just a bit more JavaScript.
By the way, if you’ve never done anything with JavaScript, don’t expect to understand the code
in the Web page markup. This demonstration just shows what can be done with JavaScript.
The future of the Web needs to include many different kinds of Web-browsing platforms, and
this little demonstration is just a taste of what you can do. (If you’re an experienced JavaScript
developer, you can create something a bit more elegant!)
APPLICATION FOR DYNAMIC SVG FILES FROM ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5 FILES
194 Adobe Illustrator CS5 (AI) has an added feature, Adobe Illustrator CS5 HTML5 Pack,
available at http://labs.adobe.com. It’s designed to allow graphic designers using AI to
easily convert their .ai files to .svg files containing parts that can be dynamically changed
using HTML5.To give you an idea how it works, the following example begins with a simple
graphic image in AI. It has two layers, and on one of the layers, the designer wants variable
color that can be coded in HTML5. The layer to be given a variable feature is selected and
viewed in the Appearance panel (as shown in Figure 9-15).
Figure 9-15: Fill is set as a variable in Adobe Illustrator CS5.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
The (X) in Figure 9-15 indicates that the Fill is a variable that can be changed with HTML5. In
order to access the feature to be changed (the fill color in this case), AI generates code for the
SVG file format that can be viewed and/or saved during the conversion from an .ai file to
an .svg file. During the conversion process, the designer clicks the Show SVG code button,
and finds the layer name of the variable feature. In this example, the specific SVG code was
the following:
<g id=”Button”>
<ellipse fill=”param(SVGID_2__FillColor) #A35563” cx=”50” cy=”50” rx=”40”
ry=”40.5”/>
</g>
The id with the value Button is from the name of the layer in AI. The param name value is
SVGID_2__FillColor, which is automatically generated by AI.
In order to work the SVG information into an HTML5 program, the .svg file must be
referenced in an <object> element and the parameter in a <param> tag. The JavaScript file
Param.js is also automatically generated by AI and must be loaded in the <head> con-
tainer in order for Firefox to correctly parse the code. The following code (AI2svg.html in
this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) works with Firefox, Safari,
Chrome and Opera browsers but with some differences in display.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html> 195
<head>
<script src=”Param.js”></script>
<title>AI -> SVG</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<section>
<figure>
<object type=”image/svg+xml” data=”butnBkground.svg”>

</object>
</figure>
<figure>
<object type=”image/svg+xml” data=”butnBkground.svg”>
<param name=”SVGID_2__FillColor” value=”#cc0000” />
</object>
</figure>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
In order to illustrate the sequence of processes, Figure 9-16 shows the original AI file and the
results of the output in Opera when the page AI2svg.html loads.
15_977279-ch09.indd 195 10/28/10 10:15 PM

Adobe
Illustrator file
Converted to
SVG for Web
Fill color of layer

converted to variable
Figure 9-16: The original AI file is transformed into an SVG format with variable fill color.
The Param.js and .svg files must be in the same folder as the HTML5 page, just as
external CSS3 and graphic files are expected to be either in the same folder as the HTML5
that calls them or in the path specified by the HTML5 code. The best part, though, is that
designers and developers can focus on the HTML5 tags while Adobe Illustrator CS5 takes
196 care of generating the JavaScript and the parameter names. Of course, this means that
designers can use vector graphics and have dynamic features in their AI creations.
TAKE THE WHEEL

This first exercise is a Web treasure hunt. You can find a lot of free tools on the Web that can
be used to alter the size of a graphic file — both in terms of dimensions and number of bytes
in the image. Even if you have a tool like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint, go find an
application on the Web that works on your computer. (You can find several if you want.)
Take an existing graphic file that is not in JPEG, PNG, or GIF format. For example, find
a graphic with a .tif or .tiff extension. (It can be a digital photograph or a drawn
graphic — or some combination of both.) Then do the following:
1. Convert the file to JPEG, PNG, and GIF format.

Now you have four files — the original and three Web formats.
2. Make a second copy of all Web graphics, naming the second one so that it indicates it
will be low quality.
For example, if you have a file named car.jpg, copy it and name the second copy
carLow.jpg.
3. Using the image application you found on the Web, create the highest- and lowest-
quality file for each of the three file types.
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CHAPTER 9: IMAGES
4. Using HTML5 and CSS3, create a Web page with three rows. On the left side place the
highest-quality images, and on the right place the lowest quality.
5. Between all the images, place fill text of your choice.
This is a good time to look up lorem ipsum on the Web. Figure 9-17 shows the general
format.
Figure 9-17: Displaying the different types and qualities of graphics in text. 197
This exercise has two purposes:
To provide you with an exercise in placing text — work with CSS3 from this chapter and
previous chapters. Using the align attribute in the <img> tag has serious limitations.
To drive home the idea that all changes to images must be done using software that changes
the characteristics of an image before you put your Web page together.
For those who want to do more with vector graphics, try out the Adobe Illustrator CS5
HTML5 Pack. If you do not have Adobe Illustrator CS5, you can download a 30-day trial free.
Try creating variables out of different parts of an AI design using multiple layers with names
that become the ID name of the parameter you’ll change.
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15_977279-ch09.indd 198 10/28/10 10:15 PM
10
SMASHING HTML5
CHAPTER
10 SOUND
ADDING SOUND TO Web pages allows You’ll learn how to work with the different
developers to create a wide range of Web sites. <audio> tag attributes and settings. Also, you’ll
Sites that play music, provide instruction, or add see how different browsers handle sound and
sound effects certainly widen the range of different sound files. As with graphics, special-
possibilities of what you can do with HTML5. ized programs are available to create audio and
This chapter examines how to prepare sound for edit it. So, after examining the basic HTML5
the Web and how you can use sound to help your elements and attributes, this chapter goes on to
Web pages make some noise. show you how to create sounds for your Web site.
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THE BASICS OF AUDIO IN HTML5

One of the most exciting new tags in the HTML5 collection is <audio>. With it you can play
audio files using the speakers on your computer or headset on a mobile device. The basic
format to select a sound file to play is:
<audio src=”jazz.mp3”></audio>
The src attribute works just like it does in an <img> tag — it’s a reference to the source of
the file. However, to get the audio to play, you need to look at the attributes.
AUTOPLAY
The autoplay attribute is fairly self-explanatory. As soon as the page loads, the sounds begin
to play. Before adding the autoplay attribute, you want to be sure that all your users are
going to be okay with listening to whatever you’re playing. One way to guarantee that users
will not return to a page is to have a continuous sound that automatically turns on. That
concern aside, the following script (BasicAudio.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how to create a simple page that begins playing
as soon as it’s launched:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
200 <head>
<title>Basic Audio</title>
</head>
<body>
Audio is between the lines<br>
----------------------------------------
<br>
<audio src=”jazz.wav” autoplay></audio>
<br>
----------------------------------------
</body>
</html>
You can test that script with any browser except Google Chrome because it’s the only one that
doesn’t recognize sound files in the .wav format. Use an .mp3 or .ogg sound file instead for
Chrome testing.
CONTROLS
As noted, if your sound (music, sound effects, or even just talking) annoys your users, they’re
not going to return. So, how do you control sound? The easiest way is to add the controls
attribute. As with autoplay, you don’t have to give it a value. Just include it within the
<audio> tag, and it automatically appears. Try the following program (Controls.html
in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5):
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
/* 694703,A83110,E89F06,F5D895,B3CF83 */
body {
background-color:#B3CF83;
color:#694703;
}
h1 {
font-family:Braggadocio, “Arial Black”;
color:#A83110;
}
</style>
<head>
<title>Controls</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>Jazz Tonight</h1>
</header>
<section>
<p>Click the triangle to start the show: </p>
<audio src=”mists.ogg” controls></audio> 201
<p>The || two pipes symbol stops all of this. </p>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
When you run this program, be sure to use a browser compatible with the audio file. (Use
a .wav file if the .ogg file type doesn’t work with your browser.) Depending on the kind of
browser you use, you’ll see different player controls. Figure 10-1 shows how the different
browsers look. (The Google Chrome browser is shown with the sound actually playing.)
About the only common feature of the audio control bar is the triangle start button on the far
left, and the sound on/off toggle on the far right. The stop/pause button is similar as well, but
the graphics of each is unique. (The different control bar images may give designers fits as
they try to design a page with audio to be fully compatible with all browsers.)
Providing some kind of control for users is essential. The Chrome browser provides a nice big
bar so that the user can clearly see where she is relative to the beginning and end of the audio.
For instructional audios, the scrubber bar (the vertical bar you can see in the Chrome browser
in Figure 10-1) is important so that the student can drag the scrubber bar to review those
portions of a lesson that are difficult to understand.
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Opera Safari
202
Chrome Firefox
Figure 10-1: Using audio player controls.
PRELOAD
The preload attribute of the <audio> tag can be an important one because it starts
preloading the audio before it’s played. In that way, users don’t have to sit and twiddle their
thumbs while the audio loads after they press play. The simplest format for the preload
attribute is just like the controls and autoplay — it just needs to be added without a value, as
the following shows:
<audio src=”Shadows.wav” preload controls></audio>
When preload is employed, you can use autoplay, but I’m not sure that it makes much sense to
do so. Autoplay starts the audio playing as soon as the page loads, while preload is used to
load an audio file before the play command is issued by the controller.
You can assign values to the preload attribute:
none: Having none as a value may seem strange, but some browsers may be set to
automatically preload audio files. However, if the chance of using a particular audio is
remote, the developer may decide not to use Internet resources and so assigns the none
value to the preload attribute.
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
metadata: All audio (and video) files have metadata like duration or some other sound
data that the sound author placed in the audio’s file. When the chance of using an audio
file is low, but (just in case) loading the metadata is reasonable and doesn’t take up much
in the way of Internet resources.
auto: If the preload attribute is present, it automatically preloads the audio file
information. The auto assignment simply acts as a reminder that the file is going to
preload. (It’s the same as not have any value assignment to a preload attribute.)
The more varied your audience and the more audio in your Web page, the more you want to
provide the preload attribute with options.
LOOP
When you want a sound to endlessly repeat itself, you use a loop. The advantage of using a
loop is that you can take a relatively short piece of music and have it repeat itself so that it
sounds like a full composition. In this way, you can use a minimum amount of Internet
resources and have continuous music. The format is like the other attributes that act like
Booleans — they’re either off or on. The following is an example:
<audio src=”Shadows.wav” autoplay loop></audio>
In that line lies the seeds of its own destruction. For many good reasons, users may want to
turn off sound. You can use JavaScript to put together a simple routine that will do that, but
203
it’s easier simply to add the controls attribute and let the user turn it off. However, some
designers, with good reason, would rather not have the audio control anywhere in the design;
they believe that some nice music would be an integral part of the design. In that case, start
looking up the JavaScript to turn the thing off. No matter how nice a piece of sound is,
repeated endlessly it becomes brainwashing, and that’s not allowed by the Geneva
Convention.
BROWSER SUPPORT FOR AUDIO

At the time of this writing, while testing audio formats, I could find no format that all
browsers supported. Worse still, no single format is supported by all HTML5 browsers. Table
10.1 shows the breakdown.
Table 10.1 Browsers and Audio Format Support

Browser MP3 WAV OGG
Chrome Yes No Yes
Firefox No Yes Yes
Internet Explorer 9* Yes No No*
Opera No Yes No
Safari Yes Yes No

* Microsoft announced that IE9 would be supporting the OGG format, but in the beta version of IE9, it did not.
16_977279-ch10.indd 203 10/28/10 10:15 PM

As you can see, the only audio format that comes close to support by all browsers is .wav.
The good news is that .wav files are widely available, and you can find just about any sound
you in .wav format. However, if a significant number of your user audience prefers the
Google Chrome browser to the others, you’re going to need a Plan B.
SAVED BY SOURCE: PLAN B

Usually, if you have to determine which browser is going to work with different resources,
you’re going to have to break out the JavaScript. Fortunately, HTML5 has an element that can
offer up several different audio formats and let the browser select the one that’s compatible.
The <source> tag can be placed within the <audio> container with the source and URL of
the audio inside the <source> tag. Suppose that you’re running a Web site with audio
instructional materials — you talk learners through HTML5, for example. Instead of telling
everyone that they have to use a certain type of browser, all you need to do is have files for all
possible browsers and let the browser pick the one it likes. For example, let’s say that you’re
setting up Lesson #3 on a Web page. The following would provide a selection of files that no
browser would pass up:
<audio controls>
<source src=”instruction3.ogg”>
<source src=”instruction3.mp3”>
<source src=”instruction3.wav”>
204 </audio>
The chore of making multiple versions of audio files may be annoying, but even if you
programmed it in JavaScript, you’d need multiple copies of the media. (In Chapter 9, multiple
copies of a graphic file were required for mobile and non-mobile platforms that used JavaScript
to sort out whether the page was being viewed on an iPhone or something else.)
TYPE ATTRIBUTE
When setting up several different types of audio sources to be sure that all HTML5-
compatible browsers will play it, you can enhance the process by adding the type attribute
to the <source> tag. The information in the type attribute tells the browser whether it
should even attempt to load the file. For example, the following snippet shows the format:
<source src=’mists.ogg’ type=’audio/ogg’>
The reason for including a type attribute is to save time. The interpreter in the browser looks
at the line and realizes that the type indicates that it can either play it or not. If not, it doesn’t
even bother trying. For example, suppose you were given a choice of taking two tests — one
in HTML5 and the other in quantum physics. Unless you have a background in quantum
physics, you’re not going to waste your time trying. However, knowing that a test will be in
HTML5, you feel like you can give it a shot. It’s the same with the type attribute. If it sees the
type and determines, “I can’t play that,” it doesn’t try.
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
If the type attribute is not in place the browser will try to load it, and if it fails, it then goes
on to the next <source> tag and gives it a try.
The following snippet shows all the types:
<audio controls>
<source src=”instruction3.ogg” type=”audio/ogg”>
<source src=”instruction3.mp3” type=”audio/mpeg”>
<source src=”instruction3.wav” type=”audio/wav”>
</audio>
All values must be valid MIME types. The valid ones follow the media-type rule defined in
W3C specifications for HTML5. The type attribute is optional, but if your site has a lot of
traffic, you want to cut out every unnecessary call. The type attribute helps you do that. For
more help, you need to consider the codec parameter in the next section.
SOURCE TYPE CODEC PARAMETER

Generally, if you enter a value for the type attribute, all you have to include is the general
type. However, when more than a single codec is available, you should add the codecs that the
browser can read. Again, specifying the codec is not going to allow the browser to access a
certain codec that it would not otherwise be able to do. Rather, it provides a heads-up to the
browser so that if it can’t read it, the browser doesn’t even try. It’s like a newspaper vendor
asking, “What do you want? We’ve got papers in English, Spanish, and Mongolian.” If you 205
read English and Spanish, you can choose them, but if you know you don’t read Mongolian,
you don’t even try.
Before moving on to a closer look at the codec parameter, be sure to understand what a codec
is. The word codec is a combination of the terms compression and decompression. So, when I
speak of a codec, I’m talking about how a file is encoded (usually shrunk) and decoded
(expanded so it can be played).
The type of codec, even though the file types are the same, can be different. In order to speed
up the process of determining whether the file can be read, adding the codec parameter filters
out those codec types that the browser can’t read. For example, the following are all .ogg files
with different codecs:
<source src=”songFest.ogg” type=”audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis”>

<source src=” songFest.spx” type=”audio/ogg; codecs=speex”>
<source src=”audio.oga” type=”audio/ogg; codecs=flac”>
So remember, codecs and file types are horses of different colors. If your Web pages can use
full codec information on a file, you may as well use it. Otherwise, some browsers may
attempt to launch the sound only to find that the codec is incompatible.
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Some types of audio files are more likely than others to have a wide range of codecs. The
following snippet shows typical codecs for all the HTML5 sound files that can be read by
HTML5 browsers:
<audio controls>
<source src=”sound.ogg” type=”audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis”>
<source src=”jazz.mp3” type=”audio/mpeg; codecs=mp3”>
<source src=”Shadows.wav” type=”audio/wav; codecs=wav”>
</audio>
The above snippet does not show all possible codecs of all audio types. However, it represents
the typical kinds of codes used in Internet audio.
CREATING AUDIO FILES

Both Windows 7 and Macintosh OS X include programs that you can use to create your own
audio files. They come loaded on your computer, and unless you removed them, you should
be all set to get started making sound recordings.
Earlier versions of Windows also have a Sound Recorder application, but it looks different
from the one used in the example. Also, the Sound Recorder that is part of Windows XP saves
files to .wav format, so they’re all ready for a Web page. However, the newer version of Sound
Recorder that ships with Windows 7 only saves files in .wma format and must be converted to
206 a file type recognized by HTML5 browsers.
WINDOWS 7 SOUND RECORDER

The first thing you want to do when you make a recording is to set up some kind of micro-
phone for the recording. Most computers that run Windows 7 have built-in microphones, and
you can use those. Otherwise, you’ll need to plug in the microphone you plan to use and
make sure it’s properly configured. Usually, your computer can find the audio drivers you
need, but some microphones come with software drivers that you need to install. Directions
for such installations will come with the microphone.
To select a microphone, use the following path: Control Panel > Hardware and Sound >
Manage Audio Devices. When the Sound window opens, select the Recording tab. You’ll see
the selections shown in Figure 10-2.
Your recording selections may be different, but in general you’ll either have a line-in or a
built-in microphone. When you make a selection, click OK, and you’re now ready to open the
Sound Recorder application.
From the Start menu, select All Programs > Accessories > Sound Recorder. (If you’re running
Windows XP, choose All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Sound Recorder.) Figure
10-3 shows what the Sound Recorder looks like when it’s ready to record (top) and while it’s
recording (bottom).
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
Figure 10-2: Windows 7 recording selections.
207
Figure 10-3: The Sound Recorder application in Windows 7.
Once you’re ready to start recording, click on the red circle, and begin talking. As you talk,
you’ll see a green bar appear next to the timer in the middle of the recorder bar. If that bar is
not moving as you talk, that means your microphone is not working correctly. Otherwise,
you’ll see the green sound bar bounce in and out as you speak. When you’re finished, click on
the Stop Recording button — a blue square. (In Sound Recorder in Windows XP, the Stop
Recording button is a black rectangle right next to the red circle that starts the recording.)
When you click the Stop Recording button, a new Save As window opens and you can select
the directory where you want to save your audio recording. As noted, in Windows 7, the only
option is in .wma format (Windows Media Audio). If you’re using the Windows XP version,
select Save or Save As to open a dialog box to use to choose the directory, filename, and
format — which is .wav (but not .wma!).
If you’re using the older version of Sound Recorder, you’re all set with a .wav file that you can
play using the HTML5 <audio> tag. Otherwise, you’ll have to convert the .wma file to an
acceptable format for HTML5 browsers.
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MACINTOSH OS X SOUND STUDIO

Macs come bundled with a program called Sound Studio. Macs also have built-in microphones
as well, or you can use an external microphone if you have the correct drivers installed. You
can select an external microphone (including ones built into any attached cameras) either
from System Preferences > Sound > Input or from Sound Studio. While you’re choosing the
Input device, any noise will appear in an Input level graphic, so be sure to speak while making
the settings so that you can get an idea of the sound level.
To open Sound Studio, select Go > Applications > Sound Studio (folder) > Sound Studio.app
from the Finder. When Sound Studio opens, you’ll see a timeline and an Input Levels window,
as shown in Figure 10-4.
208
Figure 10-4: Sound Studio timelines and the Input Levels window.
Converting files
If you’ll be using audio for general audiences, you’re going to need either
A sound editor that saves audio files as .wav files and either .mp3 or .ogg.
A conversion program. A simple search on the Web will reveal several. For example, if you’re
using the Windows 7 Sound Recorder, you’ll need a program to convert from .wma format
to.mp3, .wav, or .ogg. Generally, the process is quite simple for either Mac or Windows
platforms.
A variety of conversion products are available, but several for Windows 7 can be found at http://
software-download.name/audio-converter-windows-7/. On the Mac, I tested Switch
Sound File Converter (http://download.cnet.com/Switch-Audio-Converter/3000-
2140_4-10703967.html) and found it to be easy to use; it converted typical Mac sound file types
(like .aiff files) to sound files recognized by the HTML5 browsers. Do a Web search and you’ll find
far more converters for both Windows and Macs.
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
To make a recording, click the red Record button. If you want to pause to gather your thoughts,
click the Pause button. Once you’re finished, click the Stop button and select File from the
menu bar. If you choose Save or Save As, you can save the file for HTML5 browsers in .wav
format. However, if you select Export with QuickTime, the file will be in .mp3 audio format.
So, using Sound Studio on the Mac, you can generate two of the three HTML5 formats
available to store your audio recordings.
SOUND EFFECTS: FX ON YOUR DESKTOP

The range of sound effects available on the Web either free or for a price should get you started
on just about any sound effect you could want. The best place to start is at FlashKit (www.
flashkit.com/soundfx). Even though the site is dedicated to Flash, it has over 7,000 (and
growing) free, public-domain sound effects from which to choose. What’s more, you can
download them in either .wav or .mp3 format, so they’re already set to be used in an HTML5
Web page. If you search the Web, you can find virtually any sound effect you want.
If you want to record your own sound effects, you can use simple household noises and the
sound recording applications on your computer. For example, a dog barking, an airplane flying
overhead, or just about any other sound you can hear, you can record. (Be careful with
copyrighted music, though!)
TRANSITION SOUNDS
209
A subtle yet effective interactive sound can be used to add an audio component to page
transitions. In a tactile world of buttons, switches and doorknobs, our actions often evoke
sounds. You can make your Web links do the same thing. Use the following steps to create a
simple transition:
1. Navigate to www.flashkit.com/soundfx.
2. Select Sound FX from the home page menu.
3. Select Interfaces > Clicks from the Interfaces Categories.
4. Select a click sound that you like.
If you’d rather, choose a Zoop, Zang or Zing — just be sure it’s short in duration.
5. Download both .wav and .mp3 versions.
6. Rename one file click.wav and the other click.mp3.
7. Place the .mp3 and .wav files in a folder.
Now, in the same folder where you placed the sound files, place the following two pages
(TransitionSound.html and SoundOpen.html in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5).
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Start Page with No Sound

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
a {
color:#cc0000;
font-size:24px;
}
</style>
<title>Transition Sound</title>
</head>
<body>
<a href=”SoundOpen.html”>Click to Next Page</a>
</body>
</html>
Play Sound When Opened

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
210 <html>
<head>
body {
color:#cc0000;
font-size:24px;
}
</style>
<title>Sound on Open</title>
</head>
<body>
<audio autoplay>
<source src=”click.wav” >
<source src=”click.mp3” >
</audio>
This page clicks.
</body>
</html>
Save both HTML5 pages in the same folder along with the two sound files. Test the HTML5
pages with several browsers. When you click the link, it opens a Web page and an <audio>
tag with the autoplay attribute should play the click sound right after the page loads. If you
have a site where the links go back and forth, the sound plays almost simultaneously with the
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
click action so that it sound as though clicking the link made the sound. Of course, that’s the
idea. Otherwise, if the page takes even a little while to load, the click sounds when the page
comes up — sort of like clicking itself into place.
At the time of this writing, the Opera and Firefox browsers on the Macintosh did not work
when the type attribute was added to the <source> tag, but with Safari and Chrome it did.
However, when the type attribute was omitted, the Web pages worked fine with all the
Macintosh HTML5 browsers. In testing on Windows 7, the latest versions of Firefox and
Safari did not generate sound, but both Opera and Chrome did with the same files. (This is
why Web developers age quickly.) However, HTML5 is still young, and many of the features of
HTML5 are still in development. So, by the time you’re reading this, these differences may
have been resolved.
INTEGRATING SOUND EFFECTS INTO A WEB PAGE

One feature of sound effects that can make them difficult to work with if you’re not using the
controls attribute is getting them to fire when you want. With plain HTML5, about the
only way to fire off a sound is to place a page into an iframe and play the audio automati-
cally. With JavaScript, far more elegant and sophisticated solutions are available, but function-
ally, using iframe works.
The following four HTML5 pages are made up of one page that loads three other pages into
an iframe. As each page loads, it plays a sound effect: a dog bark, a scream, and an explo-
sion. The user sees the iframe turn the color of the speaker button that was clicked and 211
hears the sound effect, and no JavaScript was used at all. Figure 10-5 shows what the users see
when she clicks on the green speaker icon.
Figure 10-5: Triggering sounds using links to an iframe.
You’ll need to download (or create) three sounds, each in both .wav and .mp3 formats. Use
short sound effects and when each of the icon buttons is clicked, the sound plays by the page
loading in the iframe. The page being loaded has nothing but the sound, and for this
demonstration, it has a background color matching the speaker icon color. Place all the pages
and the six sound files in the same folder. (The following files are in this chapter’s folder at
www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5: SoundFrame.html, sound1.html, sound2.
html, sound3.html.)
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A Page with iframe Calls Other pages with Sound Effects

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
h3 {
color:#cc0000;
}
</style>
<title>Sound Frames</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h3>Sound Tester</h3>
<iframe name=”ifSound” width=”125” height=”10”></iframe>
</header>
<section> <a href=”sound1.html” target=”ifSound”><img src=”Redspeaker.gif”
width=”40” height=”40”></a> <a href=”sound2.html” target=”ifSound”><img
src=”Greenspeaker.gif” width=”40” height=”40”></a> <a href=”sound3.html”
target=”ifSound”><img src=”Bluespeaker.gif” width=”40” height=”40”> </a> </section>
</article>
212 </body>
</html>
A Page with a Barking Dog and a Red Background

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
background-color:#cc0000;
}
</style>
<title>Sound 1: Red</title>
</head>
<body>
<audio autoplay>
<source src=”dog.wav” >
<source src=”dog.mp3” >
</audio>
</body>
</html>
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CHAPTER 10: SOUND
A Page with a Scream and a Green Background

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
}
</style>
<title>Sound 2: Green</title>
</head>
<body>
<audio autoplay>
<source src=”scream.wav” >
<source src=”scream.mp3” >
</audio>
</body>
</html>
A Page with an Explosion and a Blue Background

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html> 213
<head>
body {
background-color:#0000cc;
}
</style>
<title>Sound 3: Blue</title>
</head>
<body>
<audio autoplay>
<source src=”boom.wav” >
<source src=”boom.mp3” >
</audio>
</body>
</html>
You can have a lot of fun testing different sounds. Be sure to test it on different HTML5
browsers. Also, try to make your own sound effects — you can recruit your dog, cat, and
parrot (who was once owned by a sailor).
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TAKE THE WHEEL

This challenge is to make a talking comic book. Think of a simple story that can be told in
four panels. Each panel will have a drawing (or digital photo) but no text. As the user clicks
each panel, an audio recording “says” what text would say in a typical comic. You’ll have to
use an iframe to trigger each of the four audio recordings, and each of the comic panels will
really be a button to link to the page with the panel’s audio. You can use clip art for the panels
if you want, and you can enhance the story with sound effects to accompany the audio.
214
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11
SMASHING HTML5
CHAPTER
11 VIDEO
ONE OF THE most important features added to streaming video; instead, it’s a type of progressive
HTML5 is video. If you’ve used YouTube, you’re download. As the video is downloaded from the
aware of the power of video on the Web. Like- Web server, it’s displayed by the Web page, so it
wise, Adobe Flash users have embedded video in can be slow. In fact, most videos created by Flash
their programs for years. So, video on the Web hobbyists are very likely to be this kind of video.
isn’t exactly new. However, the new features of Streaming video, at this point, requires a stream-
HTML5 make it possible to access video directly ing video server like Adobe Flash Media Server.
from an HTML5 Web page, and that’s something However, you can expect to see developments in
that HTML has never been able to do in previous true streaming as HTML5 video becomes more
builds without a link to a Flash .swf file or some popular.
other binary file that streams video independent
of the tags placed in an HTML file. If you’ve read Chapter 10, you’ll find many of the
video tags familiar. This chapter looks at many of
An important caveat to add here is that the video the same tags, like <source>, but with an eye to
that is displayed by your Web page is not true loading and playing video.
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MAKING AN HTML5 PAGE WITH VIDEO

To get started with video, you need a video file. You can create one on your computer, or you
can download one from the Web. So the question is: What kind of video file? The Tower of
Babel made more sense than all the video codecs do, so this section begins with the most
ubiquitous of all current video formats, H.264. As a video format, H.264 is usually referred as
MPEG-4 or its file extension, .mp4. This video format gained popularity as the first high-
definition video format for the Web. Most people first saw it playing on the Web as a Flash
.f4v file, and the results were much better than previous Web video.
The key tag used in video is, to no one’s amazement, <video>. Just as with an image or
audio, the first attribute that you need is a source, and the src attribute is used to identify
the source. So, creating Web pages with video is quite simple. The following listing
(SimpleVideo.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5)
displays video basics in an HTML5 Web page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Simple Video</title>
</head>
<body>
<video src=”mbAux1small.mp4” controls preload=”auto”></video>
216 </body>
</html>
In order to test and run this file, you need a Safari browser because, at the time of this writing,
that’s the only browser that it works with. (The browser is free, so go ahead and try it.)
When you run the program, you’ll see your video play on the Safari browser. The way the
controls are set up, you’ll have to wait until you see an image, which means the video is ready.
Click the start arrow on the controller and you should see your video play. Figure 11-1 shows
what you can expect to see if you play and pause the video.
Obviously, you’re going to want your video to play on more than one browser. If your video
can be viewed using only a single browser, you’re going to miss a lot of users. Fortunately,
HTML5 has a simple way of solving the problem. Within a <video> container, you can add
as many <source> tags as you want. The source attribute (src) is moved to the <source>
tag. If you place several <source> tags in the <video> container, the browser will look at
the video files and select the one it knows how to play and automatically play it. If it can play
more than a single type of video format, it starts playing the first one it recognizes and ignores
all the rest. All this can be done using HTML5 without having to break out JavaScript. The
following snippet shows the basic format of accessing video files in this manner:
<video>
<source src=”someVid.3gp”>
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
<source src=”someVid.mp4”>
<source src=”someVid.ogv”>
<source src=”someVid.webm”>
</video>
Figure 11-1: Viewing a simple video on the Safari browser.
Although many different formats are around for digital video, the ones that will be used for
illustration and discussed in this chapter are the following: 217
H.264: .mp4 and .mov

OGG: .ogv
WebM: .webm
3GP: .3gp
At the time of this writing (and quite possibly for the future) different formats are going to
run on different browsers. However, using the <source> tag, you can easily reference several
different browsers. For example, the following code (SimpleVideoSource.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) plays the same video on any of
the browsers tested, including two mobile browsers.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Selective Video</title>
</head>
<body>
<video controls preload=”auto”>
<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1.3gp”>
<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1small.mp4”>
17_977279-ch11.indd 217 10/28/10 10:15 PM

<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1small.ogv”>
<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1small.webm”>
</video>
</body>
</html>
When I tested the program with different browsers and platforms, all of them were able to
find the file format they preferred and play both the video and sound. Figure 11-2 shows the
video playing in a Safari mobile browser on an iPhone.
218
Figure 11-2: Video playing on an iPhone.
The quality of the play was fairly consistent on all browsers. On both the Safari mobile
browser and Perfect Browser for the iPhone, other than the screen size, the video quality was
quite good. Most important, it loaded quickly.
VIDEO AND BROWSER COMPATIBILITY

Two very different issues must be addressed when discussing HTML5 Web video and
compatibility. One is simply which browsers work with which video formats. I’ll be using the
term video format to refer to a combination of video containers (wrappers in which actual
videos are enclosed) and codecs (code-decode technology) — primarily by referring to the
extension associated with the files. Technically, there’s a lot more about video files than I have
room to discuss here, but to get rolling with video, you need to recognize different files by
their video extensions and what browsers they’ll play on.
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
Letting the pundits do their job

Technology pundits seem to dwell on the complex and interesting issues surrounding why different
companies have chosen particular formats. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Opera, Adobe, and Mozilla
selected the file formats they did for reasons that have to do with patents, use rights, licenses, and
financial considerations, as well as integrating the technology into other plans they may have. All you
need to be concerned with is what works for your Web sites — wondering why one technology is
preferred over another by the browser providers is best left to the pundits. You just need to know what
will work and how to implement it.
At this point in time, going beyond what can be tested and proven is a bit risky. However, I
think that we can look at four different kinds of file containers and codecs and use the four
listed at the beginning of the chapter. The 3GP container format is related to MPEG-4, but it’s
actually an H.263 format, and its primary adoption has been for mobile devices like the
iPhone. Table 11.1 shows the compatibility matrix of the major browsers on which video tests
have been made or decisions have been made.
Table 11.1 Browsers and Video Format Support

Browser H.264 OGG WebM 3GP
Chrome No Yes Yes No 219

Firefox No Yes Unknown No
Internet Explorer 9 *No No No Yes
Opera No Yes Yes No
Safari Yes No No Yes
Safari Mobile No No No Yes

* Microsoft announced that it would support H.264, but IE9 was unable to play MP4 format at the time of testing the beta version
of the browser.
Given the array of compatibility between browsers and file formats, you need to know how
to convert between the different formats. This next section examines how to do that. The
conversion needs to happen first between the file type used by the recording instrument (a
camera or screen-sharing application) or video-editing software. The second type of conver-
sion is between the video fully prepared for the Web and the possible types of files required
for HTML5 pages. Once all the types of files needed are ready, all you have to do is place them
in <source> tags within a <video> container.
MAKE MINE WEBM: THE MIRO VIDEO CONVERTER

Of all the file formats tested, only Opera worked with the WebM format. However, several
other companies who make browsers are also involved in the WebM project, and so in the
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future, it may prove to be a more important format than it currently is. More information
about WebM can be found at the WebM Project site at www.webmproject.org.
One conversion program that was tested and for WebM was the Miro Video Converter. It’s
simple to use and provides many conversion options — not just to and from WebM. Figure
11-3 shows the Miro Video Converter converting an MP4 into a WebM file.
220
Figure 11-3: Converting files using Miro Video Converter.
The Miro Video Converter is available free of charge at www.mirovideoconverter.com.

The conversion process involves dragging or loading the file to be converted to a central
window and then clicking a Convert button. It’s very simple and adaptive.
For .ogv files, select Theora from the menu and then click the Convert button. The resulting
file has the extension .theora.ogv, but by removing the .theora, you can run it fine with
just the .ogv extension. In converting from an .mp4 file to the .ogv file, the file size was
reduced from 54MB to 11MB — a fivefold reduction.
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
CONVERTING TO 3GP: ADOBE MEDIA ENCODER CS5

In converting to 3GP format for displaying on mobile devices, Adobe Media Encoder CS5
(AME) was found to provide many advantages. The encoder ships with several different
Adobe products, and for this book I tested it with Adobe Premier while editing MP4 files
generated by a high-definition (HD) video camera.
Besides having the ability to convert files into 3GP format, AME was able to do some basic
editing itself. The most important function was to reduce the dimensions of the video and,
therefore, the file size and the amount of time it took to stream the video over the Internet.
This is especially crucial for mobile devices.
Figure 11-4 shows a file that natively was saved in a 720 x 480 format. Then it was reduced to
320 x 212. Typically, videos are formatted in a 4:3 ratio. However, HD format of the video
camera used is 16:9, so the dimensions are wider than what you could expect in a video
created using a built-in webcam on your computer. When preparing video for the Web, that
can be a major consideration. Likewise, when setting the width and height attributes in a
<video> tag, don’t forget the changed dimensions.
221
Figure 11-4: Converting files using Adobe Media Encoder.
As you can see in Figure 11-4, AME provides a good deal of file information. In the left panel,
it visually displays the file you’re currently working with.
17_977279-ch11.indd 221 10/28/10 10:15 PM

When the conversion is complete, AME provides a number of different generic display
formats. For example, Figure 11-5 shows what you can expect to see in a mobile device with a
horizontal display.
222
Figure 11-5: Displaying video in Adobe Device Central.
In looking at Figure 11-5, you have an excellent idea of what your video is going to look like
in the target device. Adobe Device Central provides several different views so that you can
optimize the video prior to placing it on the Web.
MAKING VIDEOS FOR THE WEB

Before turning to the many attributes of the video element, this section considers the whole
issue of creating videos and saving them on your computer. The range of types of video
available for showing on the Web is wide, and making and storing them is equally varied.
Here only four are considered:
Webcams
Small camcorders
Standard camcorders
Screen video capture
The focus is on getting the materials from the camera into a file format that can be used
immediately or converted for use with HTML5.
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
WEBCAMS
At the time of this writing, most laptop computers come bundled with built-in webcams.
Likewise, many desktops do as well. For computers that do not come with built-in webcams,
several are available that can be connected to the USB port.
For Windows 7 users, the best software for making videos with the webcam is usually that of
the webcam manufacturer. For example, both Logitech and Creative, two companies that
manufacture webcams, have excellent software that both records and stores video files that can
be converted for Web use. You also can add special effects with the software to your videos.
Also, with Windows 7 and Vista, you can download the newest Microsoft Movie Maker
software free from: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker.
Unlike Windows XP, which comes packaged with Windows Live Movie Maker, you have to
download the movie-making software from Microsoft if you have the Windows 7 or Vista
versions of the OS.
Apple Macintosh computers generally come with built-in iSight webcams. Both iMacs and
MacBook laptops have webcams embedded in the top-center of the monitors. The models
that don’t come with webcams have iSight webcams available that plug into the USB or the
Firewire ports.
For creating videos, the Photo Booth application that comes with Mac software can be used to
create videos. All files taken with Photo Booth are saved as QuickTime files with the .mov 223
extension. These are in MP4 format, and if you change the extension from .mov to .mp4,
they’re recognized as the same file.
Webcams are useful for certain kinds of video projects. For making instructional videos for
the Web, the instructor can sit in front of the webcam and talk and display materials to the
audience. Making Web pages in HTML5 to provide slides supporting the video presentation
makes creating an instructional package as simple as making virtually any similar presenta-
tion not intended for Web use.
SMALL CAMCORDERS
The primary drawback of webcams for making videos that can be embedded in HTML5 is
that they’re tied to a computer — either built in or tethered to a USB or IEEE 1394 Firewire
port. This makes mobile use of webcams problematic, even for highly portable laptops.
Wireless webcams are available, but they tend to have a limited range and are more expensive.
However, several highly portable alternatives are available. The most common are video
cameras built into mobile phones. Mobile phones used during the protests following the 2009
Iranian elections provided worldwide exposure of the government retaliation against those
who protested election fraud. Because Western journalists were banned from covering the
election aftermath, the news coverage was provided by video from mobile phones broadcast
on YouTube and announced through Twitter.
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A new generation of small HD camcorders have been introduced that are fully portable
and save video in a solid state format. For example, the Flip Mino HD with dimensions of
3.94" x 1.97' x 0.63" (H x W x D) is smaller than many mobile phones. Figure 11-6 shows a
typical Flip with a company logo embedded in the camera.
Figure 11-6: Small high-definition camcorders are adapted for the Web.
Besides Flip, HD video cameras also are available from Kodak, in the form of the Kodak
224 Pocket Video camcorder. Both the Flip and Kodak camcorders are solid state recorders, so no
digital video tapes or removable flash memory cards are required — just as none is required
for mobile phones. The small camcorders come packaged with limited video-editing software
and save video in H.264 format on both Windows and Macintosh computers.
The quality of the video is as high as much larger and more expensive camcorders, and they’re
far more portable. They were designed from the ground up for use in creating videos for
social-networking sites like Facebook and YouTube; as a result, their native output files are
custom-ordered for displaying with HTML5 video elements.
STANDARD CAMCORDERS
The term standard here refers to handheld camcorders with such features as zoom lenses,
mini DV tape cassette storage, flash memory cards, and other features that can be placed on
larger platforms. The gamut of camcorders has widened to the point where the range is from
inexpensive ones used for personal family recordings all the way to those used by independ-
ent filmmakers.
Like the (really) small camcorders the standard ones come with USB or IEEE 1394 Firewire
connectors. The connectors can them be fed directly into video-editing software like Adobe
Premier, Apple Final Cut, or Vegas. The edited video can then be saved to a format that can be
used by HTML5 browsers.
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
SCREEN VIDEO CAPTURE

Screen video capture treats your desktop as a video recording, and a microphone connected
to or built into your computer as a video-recording microphone. For example, one of the most
established screen-video-capture software packages is Camtasia. It’s easy to use and has
several features for zooming, panning, and generally simulating a camcorder aimed at your
screen. Figure 11-7 shows the basic controls.
Figure 11-7: Screen-video-capture software makes a live recording of your desktop.
Basically, all that Camtasia requires is for the user to select the screen and the microphone
and click the Rec button (as shown in Figure 11-7). Available for Windows 7 and Macintosh
OS X, it’s a widely used software package for trainers and educators who work on a project on
the screen so that viewers can follow along.
Another screen video capture application can be found as part of the Apple Quick-Time
Player. It automatically saves files in .mov (.mp4) format that are ready to be used with an
HTML5 Web site. The recording process is extremely easy, and other than selecting the
microphone, it’s a one-step start-and-stop recording operation.
225
VIDEO AND SOURCE ATTRIBUTES

Several different attributes for the <video> and <source> tags are essential for successful
video deployment in HTML5. Once you’ve created, edited, and converted video for the Web,
the next step is to place them in the Web page. This section covers the following video
element attributes:
src
poster
preload
loop
autoplay
controls
width and height
These attributes of the <video> tag are discussed in concert with the <source> tag because
not all browsers read the same file types, so several different sources must be listed. The
<source> tag allows the browsers to choose which video file is compatible with their own
video display functions (as was shown at the beginning of the chapter).
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SRC
The type attribute is part of the <source> tag. As shown at the beginning of the chapter,
the src attribute is used to select a video file to play. If the browser can’t play the assigned
file type, it drops down to the next file in the source list. To speed up that process, the type
attribute lets the browser know what kind of file is waiting to be played and contains a MIME
parameter that tells it which codec is in use. This saves the browser from attempting to load
the file and failing. Instead, it determines from the type information whether the video file
is compatible.
<source src=”fileName.ext” type=”video/type; codecs=’c1, c2’”>
The type assignment can be made with or without the codec. If you don’t know the codec, you
can leave it blank and rely on the type to let the browser know whether it can play the file. If
you know the codec or multiple codecs, you can place more than one codec in the codecs
assignment list. Where you’re not sure you’re better off leaving the codecs assignment blank.
The following (TypeVideoSource.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows the type assignments for the four major types of video files you can
use on the Web.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
226
<title>Selective Video</title>
</head>
<body>
<video controls preload=”auto”>
<source src=”mbAux1.3gp” type=”video/3gpp; codecs=’mp4v.20.8’”>
<source src=”mbAux1small.mp4” type=”video/mp4; codecs=’mp4v.20.8’”>
<source src=”mbAux1small.ogv” type=”video/ogg; codecs=’theora, vorbis’” >
<source src=”mbAux1small.webm” type=”video/webm; codecs=’vorbis,vp8’” >
</video>
</body>
</html>
To determine the type and codec of a file, you can find several different programs on the Web.
One available at no cost with versions for Windows, Macintosh, and several different Linux
operating systems is MediaInfo available at http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en.
POSTER
The poster attribute is used with large videos and slow Internet connections. It’s simple to
use, and if you know that it’ll take a while for your video to come to the screen and begin
playing, the poster gives the user something to look at while waiting. The format is simple as
shown in the following snippet:
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CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
<video poster=”message.png”>
<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1.mp4” type=”video/mp4”>
</video>
Notice that the poster attribute is in the <video> tag even though all the file information
is in the <source> tag. There is no conflict between the video attributes and those in source.
PRELOAD
The preload attribute of the <video> tag would seem like a natural to include in all Web
pages that use video. As soon as the page loads, the video starts loading. That may be impor-
tant for a page with a single video as the main feature of the page. However, if it’s a minor part
of the page or if several videos are on a single page, preloading can gobble up resources. So,
while useful, the attribute needs to be employed judiciously. It uses the following format:
<video preload=”auto”>
<source src=”mbAux1small.webm” type=”video/webm; codecs=’vorbis,vp8’” >
</video>
The preload attribute has several values it can be assigned. They’re identical to audio
preload values.
none: Having none as a value may seem strange, but some browsers may be set to
automatically preload video files. However, if the chance of using a particular video is 227
remote, the developer may decide not to use Internet resources and so assigns the none
value to the preload attribute.
metadata: All video files have metadata like duration, width, height, or some other data
placed in the source file. When the chance of using a video file is low, loading the
metadata is reasonable and doesn’t take up much Internet resources.
auto: If the preload attribute is present, it automatically preloads the audio file
information. The auto assignment simply acts as a reminder that the file is going to
preload (same as not having any value assignment to a preload attribute).
The more varied your audience and the more video in your Web site, the more you want to
provide the preload attribute with options.
LOOP
A video loop is something that you must plan carefully lest you run off all your viewers. A
loop means that the same video is going to start from the beginning again as soon as it ends.
The following is an example:
<video loop controls>

<source src=”phantom.3gp”>
</video>
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Notice that in the above snippet, a controls attribute is included. That’s so users can stop it
if they want. If you set up a loop with autoplay and embed it in your page, you may lose a lot
of viewers. If you create a loop advertisement, don’t expect people to be attracted to the
advertised service or product — they’ll notice it, but not in a good way.
There is a certain type of loop, more noted in music than in video, that can be useful. If it’s
short enough and doesn’t have big movements, a loop can take up very few resources and
reuse the same video stored in a cache. A demonstration of a process or even an ad that is not
annoying can be used in this fashion.
AUTOPLAY
Like the loop attribute, the autoplay attribute needs to be used with some forethought
when employed with video. The autoplay is a combination of preload and automatically
starting the video playing. The format is a Boolean one and setting the autoplay in the
<video> tag is all it takes to start it.
<video poster=”wait.jpg” autoplay>

<source src=”phantom.3gp”>
</video>
In the above snippet, the user has no control to stop the video from playing, but without a
loop attribute, it will just play once and stop. If the page is meant to be nothing but the video,
228 it’s fairly safe to use autoplay without a controller. Also, the snippet has a poster to let the
view know what’s coming, just in case there’s a long load. In the context of a Web site when
using autoplay, be sure to include a link for the next page just in case the user doesn’t want
to view the video more than once.
CONTROLS
The controls attribute generates a graphic control panel beneath the video. It allows the
user to perform the following functions:
Start the video

Stop the video
Mute the video
Control the sound volume
Time position
Scrubber control
The controls attribute is a Boolean and is implemented as shown in the following snippet:
<video controls>
<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1small.webm”>
</video>
17_977279-ch11.indd 228 10/28/10 10:15 PM

CHAPTER 11: VIDEO
The implementation of the controller is slightly different on the different browsers (as they are
on the audio controller). Figure 11-8 shows the Opera and Chrome browsers displaying the
same video.
Figure 11-8: The Opera (left) and Chrome browsers displaying video controller.
The differences in the controls are mostly style, but as you can see in comparing the Opera
and Chrome browsers, the Opera browser displays the time in the current video relative to the
total time, while the Chrome browser shows only the current time position of the video.
WIDTH AND HEIGHT 229

Unlike audio, the width and height attributes in video are very important. The browsers
use the width and height values as hints in rendering the video. The closer the values to
the actual size, the better the video looks. The following shows the format:
<video width=”352” height=”288”>

<source src=”multiformats/mbAux1small.ogv”>
</video>
Most videos maintain a 4:3 ratio such as 320 x 240; however, with HD, the ratio is different,
and sometimes editing has changed a video’s dimensions. You can select a video file and look
at its properties, but sometimes you won’t be given the dimensions. For example, on a
Macintosh OS X, dimension information for .ogv and .webm files was not provided in a
properties query (Ô + I) The same video in an MPEG4 format, though, showed the
dimensions.
TAKE THE WHEEL

This exercise requires a video camera, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a webcam or a
high-end video camcorder. If you’ve ever seen a presentation given with Microsoft Power-
Point, you know that as a person speaks, the speaker points to different slides with graphics
and text. For this exercise, think of something you’d like someone else to understand. Using a
17_977279-ch11.indd 229 10/28/10 10:15 PM

combination of images, video and text to create a three-page Web presentation. As users go
from one page to another, the video on each page starts automatically, but they have a
controller to stop it or make other viewing changes. Include an image to illustrate the topic
and text to explain what the presentation is all about. You can sit in front of a webcam to
make the video.
230
17_977279-ch11.indd 230 10/28/10 10:15 PM

IV
PART
IV DYNAMIC HTML5
TAGS PLUS A
LITTLE JAVASCRIPT
AND PHP
Chapter 12: Adding Just Enough JavaScript
Chapter 13: Thundering Your Site with Canvas
Chapter 14: Adding Forms
Chapter 15: Embedding Objects and Storing Information
Chapter 16: Catching Interactive Data
18_977279-pp04.indd 231 10/28/10 10:14 PM

18_977279-pp04.indd 232 10/28/10 10:14 PM
CHAPTER 12
SMASHING HTML5
12 ADDING JUST
ENOUGH
JAVASCRIPT
JAVASCRIPT IS A Web programming language language on different browsers. Because JavaScript
that you can use with HTML5. It can be used to meets an ECMAScript standard (ECMA-262),
access certain parts of your Web pages written in these differences are slight, and what I’ll be
HTML5 and do other things that simply cannot discussing in this chapter are only those aspects
be done without JavaScript. This chapter intro- of JavaScript that you can use with HTML5.
duces some basic features that are going to be
used specifically with HTML5 elements. Finally, JavaScript and Java have nothing in
common — JavaScript is not based on an
JavaScript is considered a scripting language interpreted version of Java. They could be named
because it’s interpreted by the browser at runtime dogs and cats or apples and oranges for all they
(when you actually open a Web page) rather than have in common. The name with java in it
compiled and stored on your computer as a binary sounded better. So, if you want to look up
file. Slightly different versions of JavaScript can something on the Web about JavaScript, you
creep in with different implementations of the won’t be helped if you just look for Java.
19_977279-ch12.indd 233 10/28/10 10:14 PM

PART IV: DYNAMIC HTML5 TAGS PLUS A LITTLE JAVASCRIPT AND PHP
INSERTING JAVASCRIPT INTO HTML5 PAGES

JavaScript programs are placed in the head of a Web page because that part of the Web page
loads first, so it’s ready when the rest of the page loads. They act very much like CSS3 scripts,
and like CSS3 scripts, they can be placed in other places than the page’s head. However,
for this chapter, I’ll keep it simple and all JavaScript will be in the head. For example, try
the following program (js1.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
document.write(“A chat with HTML5 is taking place shortly....”);
</script>
<title>First JavaScript</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
When you test the program, you’ll see text on your page and nothing else. The key to under-
standing the relationship between HTML5 and JavaScript is in the function: document.
234 write(). The document refers to the Web page, and write() is a method that tells the
Web page what to do. In this case, write() instructs the program to write the text in
quotation marks to the Web page.
JAVASCRIPT IN EXTERNAL FILES

Just like CSS3 files, you can create JavaScript programs in text files and save them externally.
The .js extension is used to identify JavaScript files. For example, the following JavaScript
program is just one line:
document.write(“This is from an external file...”);
Save it as externalJS.js in a text-file format. Next, enter the following HTML5 program
and save it in the same folder as the externalJS.js program. The key part of the page is
the <script> tag that’s used to specify the JavaScript program to use.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script src=”externalJS.js”></script>
<title>External JavaScript</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
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CHAPTER 12: ADDING JUST ENOUGH JAVASCRIPT
When the Web page opens, you see the contents of the document.write() statement. The
write() method is just a built-in function that expects a line of text to display on the screen.
In this case, the text is from an external file; otherwise, it’s the same as embedding it in a Web
page script.
FUNCTIONS
JavaScript functions are packages of code that are launched when called by the Web page. The
advantage of functions is that you can use them to package code and make changes to add
new content. The built-in write() function only requires that you enter some text for it
print to the document (Web page). You don’t have to rely on built-in functions but can create
your own. For example, the following is an external JavaScript program with a simple
function that opens an alert() function. (A user function using a built-in function.) Save
the following JavaScript program as nameMe.js:
// JavaScript Document
var name=”Little Willie Hacker”;
function getName(someName)
{
alert(someName);
}
getName(name)
All functions are followed by parentheses. If required, the developer can put a parameter in 235
the parentheses. In this case, the parameter is called someName. When the function is
called, the developer places a name, a number, or anything else desired in the space where
someName is. In this case, a variable labeled name is assigned the value Little Willie
Hacker. At the bottom of the program, the line, getName(name) calls the function, placing
the variable into the parameter. The function passes the value of the variable to the alert()
function within the getName() function, so you can expect to see an alert box on the screen
when the program launches. The following HTML5 (JSfunction.html in this chapter’s
folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) calls the JavaScript that calls the
function.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script src=”nameMe.js”></script>
<title>External Function</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
That JavaScript program launched as soon as the page loads. A more important use of
JavaScript functions lies in its ability to wait for the JavaScript until it needs it. The next
section shows how.
19_977279-ch12.indd 235 10/28/10 10:14 PM

EVENT HANDLERS
The real power of JavaScript with HTML5 can be better seen when the program waits until
the user does something to launch a script. For example, if the user clicks something, you can
launch any JavaScript program you want. You use an HTML5 event handler. The page detects
some kind of action (an event) and has a built-in function that recognizes the event.
HTML5 recognizes a lot of events. Some of the events occur automatically — such as when
the page loads. Other events occur when users do something with the mouse or keyboard.
The elements in Table 12.1 shows a sample of some of the different events handlers.
Table 12.1 A Sample of HTML5 Event Handlers

onchange onclick ondbleclick ondrag ondragend
ondragenter ondragleave ondragover ondragstart ondrop
onkeydown onkeypress onkeyup onmousedown onmousemove
onmouseout onmouseover onmouseup onmousewheel onpause
onplay onplaying onprogress onloadstart onload
The general format of all events linked to elements is:
<element onEvent = “javascriptFunction()”>

236
For example,
<body onLoad = “announceSomething()”>
uses the body element with the onLoad event handler to fire a JavaScript function named
announceSomething().
Detecting a variety of events

To see how event handlers work with JavaScript, the following program (ClickDetect.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) has three different
event handlers and three different JavaScript functions that are launched by the events. The
first one sends out an alert when the page loads, the second fires when the top link is clicked,
and the third launches an alert when the second link is double-clicked.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
h1, h2 {
}
19_977279-ch12.indd 236 10/28/10 10:14 PM

a {
color:#060;
}
</style>
function detectLoaded()
{
alert(“Page is loaded.”);
}
function detectClick()
{
alert(“You clicked a link.”);
}
function detectDoubleClick()
{
alert(“You double-clicked another link.”);
}
</script>
<title>Event Handler</title>
</head>
<body onLoad=”detectLoaded()”>
<hgroup>
<h1> <a href=”#” onClick=”detectClick()”>Click This</a></h1> 237
<h2> <a href=”#” onDblClick=”detectDoubleClick()”>Double-Click This</a>
</h2>
</hgroup>
</body>
</html>
The JavaScript functions can be whatever you want them to be, which enables you to interact
far more with the users. You can provide instructions, options, cautions, or whatever you want.
Handling with any element

In the “click” area in the previous program, a link tag, <a>, is used to set up the event handler,
using the following format:
<a href=”#” onClick=”clickEventHandler()”>
That kind of code is nothing new to HTML5. It’s used here for one simple reason: When the
mouse moves over the text within the <a> tag, the cursor changes so that users know that
they’re over linked text.
However, you can set up an event handler in any element. For example, consider the following
Web page (ClickP.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashing
html5).
19_977279-ch12.indd 237 10/28/10 10:14 PM

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
p {
color:#FF0;
background-color:#00F;
font-size:24px;
text-align:center;
font-weight:bold;
}
</style>
function showArticle()
{
alert(“You just clicked within a <article> container”);
}
function showHeader()
{
alert(“You just clicked within a <header> container”);
}
function showP()
{
alert(“You just clicked within a <P> container”);
238 }
</script>
<title>OnClick in any Element</title>
</head>
<body>
<article onClick=”showArticle()”>
<header onClick=”showHeader()”>
<h1>This is an H1 Element in the Header</h1>
</header>
<section>
<p onClick=”showP()”>Click This Paragraph</p>
This is just plain old text in the article container. Click here just to see
what happens. </section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
In looking at the above program, you may have noticed that some events are embedded inside
other elements that also have event handlers. For instance, all the elements are inside the
<article> tag. What will happen when you click on the paragraph that has an event
19_977279-ch12.indd 238 10/28/10 10:14 PM

handler? Or the <header>? Are they just going to react to the innermost or outermost
event? Look closely at both panels in Figure 12-1.
239
Figure 12-1: Nested event handlers.
In the top panel, as soon as a user clicks the line “Click This Paragraph,” the event is reported
in the alert box (top panel). Then, when the user clicks the OK button in the JavaScript
pop-up, the second alert appears letting him know that he’s clicked in the <article>
container as well. One way of looking at the events is bubbling up, beginning in the lowest
level in the hierarch of elements and then bubbling up to the topmost level.
USING THE DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL

The Document Object Model (DOM) for HTML5 represents a hierarchy tree. At the base
(root) of every Web page or document is the <html> tag, and the rest of the elements in the
page are a branch somewhere along the tree. JavaScript uses the DOM for addressing and
manipulating a Web page beyond what you can do with HTML5 alone. The entire DOM tree
is a representation of the document that resides in your computer’s memory.
When any part of the DOM tree is addressed, it does so by referencing an element within the
tree, beginning with document. Each element in the tree is addressed in order of the
hierarchy beginning with document. The different elements in a Web page are the different
19_977279-ch12.indd 239 10/28/10 10:14 PM

properties or methods (built-in functions) of the document separated by a dot (.). For
example,
document.forms.fred;
addresses a form named fred within a document. The HTML5 markup looks like the
following:
<form name= “fred”>
Other times, you’ll see a built-in function that does something with the document such as,
document.write(“This is straight from the Document”);
which prints text on the screen. Also, the window root along with the document has several
built-in functions that are useful for manipulating viewing areas of a Web page.
HOW THE DOM WORKS WITH YOUR PAGE AND JAVASCRIPT

To get a better sense of how the DOM works with your page and JavaScript, it helps to
see what can be done with a Web page’s windows — the viewing part of your Web page.
The following (PageOpener.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how to load a new Window from a current document, leaving
240 the current page in place.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
a {
color:#cc0000;
font-size:24px;
}
header {
text-align:center;
}
</style>
function someOtherWindow()
{
window.open(“OtherWindow.html”,”ow”,”width=400,height=200”);
}
</script>
<title>Open Other Page</title>
</head>
19_977279-ch12.indd 240 10/28/10 10:14 PM

<body>
<header> <a href=”#” onClick=”someOtherWindow()”>Click to Open New Window</a> </
header>
</body>
</html>
This page requires a second page to open as a separate window. The following (OtherWindow.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) provides a page to
open and, at the same time, the DOM-based script to close the open window.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
h1,h4 {
color:#930;
}
a {
color:#cc0000;
text-align:center;
}
</style>
241
function shutItDown()
{
window.close();
}
</script>
<title>Other Window</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This window has an important message. . . .</h1>
<h4>Stand by while I figure out what it is. . . .</h4>
<a href=”#” onClick=”shutItDown()”>Shut the window!</a>
</body>
</html>
Figure 12-2 shows what you can expect to see when the Web page opens as second window.
Up to this point in the book, when one page has linked to another page, the current page has
disappeared as soon as the user clicks a link. However, with this little JavaScript, you can
“talk” directly to the page and tell it you want a new window of a specified size to open while
your current window stays open.
19_977279-ch12.indd 241 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 12-2: Opening a second window.
HTML5 ELEMENTS AND THE DOM

In order to give you a better idea of how to work with the DOM in HTML5, certain new
elements require DOM references within the tags themselves. One such new element is the
<output> tag. At the time of this writing, Opera was the only browser that had fully
implemented this new element, so you might want to test it initially with Opera. Before you
incorporate it fully with your site, test it with all the other browsers because you may find it
very useful as a key HTML5 element.
242
When you use the <output> tag, you can place the results of a calculation directly on the
Web page. You don’t have to build a JavaScript function or even a script. However, the
materials within an <output> tag must follow the same DOM rules as with JavaScript
proper. The output container doesn’t require content between the opening and closing tags.
However, all the calculations must be within the <output> tag itself.
The output element works in conjunction with the <form> tag that is covered in detail in
Chapter 14, but for now the focus is on the DOM structure in the <output> tag’s use. The
following script (shoppingOutput.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/
go/smashinghtml5) shows how to incorporate the element in a functional HTML5 page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*042B45,FFC54F,FFE6BF,E8A5B5,FF0A03*/
body {
background-color:#FFE6BF;
color:#042B45;
}
19_977279-ch12.indd 242 10/28/10 10:14 PM

input {
background-color:#FFE6BF;
}
h1 {
color:#E8A5B5;
background-color:#042B45;
text-align:center;
}
h3 {
color:#FFC54F;
background-color:#FF0A03;
}
</style>
<title>Simple Shopping Cart</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>Shopping Calculator</h1>
</header>
<form>
<input name=cost type=number>
Cost <br>
<input name=tax type=number>
Tax--Enter as decimal percent (e.g., .06) <br>
<h3> Total = $ 243
<output onforminput=”value = cost.valueAsNumber * tax.valueAsNumber + cost.
valueAsNumber”></output>
</h3>
</form>
</body>
</html>
The <form> tag has no information beyond the tag itself. For this application, it needs none.
Within the <form> container, two input forms are named cost and tax. In the context of
the DOM, each is an object with certain properties, one of which is valueAsNumber.
Whatever number character is in the input form is treated as an actual number instead of a
text character. The valueAsNumber is a property of the <input> tag and not the number
type that was used in this example. (We could’ve used a text value for the input type and had
the same results using the <output> tag.) The number input form has a “spinner” type of
input window, but values in the input window are not automatically converted into numeric
data. Figure 12-3 shows the results of the Web page in an Opera browser (the only HTML5
browser that had implemented the onFormInput event handler at the time of this writing).
Notice how the onFormInput event handler works. As information is entered into the
form, the results are calculated and displayed. Initially, the result is NaN (Not a Number)
because the tax entry is null, resulting in a non-number result. However, as soon as the
tax is entered, the output changes to a number.
19_977279-ch12.indd 243 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 12-3: Using the <output> tag for calculations in Opera browser.
STORING TEMPORARY VALUES

In this brief snapshot of JavaScript, we’ve looked at a great deal, so if some of it escapes you,
don’t worry. Most of what you need to know about JavaScript in the context of HTML5 is
working with the DOM. In this section, I show you how data are temporarily stored in your
244 computer’s memory when looking at a Web page. Users can enter data by clicking a button, a
check box, a radio button, or a link, or by using the keyboard. (All of this will be related to
what happens with the DOM — trust me.)
In order to use the information that users enter, JavaScript has ways to both store it in
memory and make it available later in the session. By examining the different structures in
JavaScript, you can get a sense of how this happens.
VARIABLES
A variable is something that changes — it varies. You can think of a variable as a box with a
label on it. For example, you might have a box with the label “MobilePhone.” In the box, you
can place only one thing. You can change what’s in the box — what we call the box’s value. So,
if you have iPhone in your MobilePhone box, you can take it out and put in either a different
iPhone (a newer model) or a different phone such as an Android. Now, the box has a different
value. The label-value pair (or name-value pair) is the combination of the variable’s label and
its current value.
You don’t have to put in the name of a mobile phone in the MobilePhone box. You can put in
anything you want — a tin-can walkie-talkie or a pink elephant. Assign whatever value you
want and any type of value, including another variable. If I wanted, I could put in a number — a
real number, not just one that identifies something such as a street address. However, a good
and practical practice is to use variable names that can be associated with what you expect to
19_977279-ch12.indd 244 10/28/10 10:14 PM

put in (or assign to) the variable. For example, if you’re making a Web site that expects to be
used to enter prices and tax (as was done in the previous section, “HTML5 elements and the
DOM”), it makes sense to use meaningful variable names such as “cost” and “tax.”
To create a variable, you simply provide a name and assign it a value. For example,
billVar=”Brought to you by Bill’s variable.”;

alert(billVar);
creates a variable named billVar. It then assigns it the value Brought to you by
Bill’s variable. When the variable is placed in the alert function, notice that no
quotation marks surround the variable.
Types of data
When you assign values to a JavaScript variable, you can assign any kind you want and then
change it to a different type. First, though, you need to have an idea of the different types of
data that are available. The following list provides a brief description of each:
String: Treated as text, typically in quotation marks

Number: An actual number (integer or real) that responds to math operations
Boolean: A two-state (true or false, 0 or 1) data type
Function: A set of JavaScript operations contained in a module 245
Object: An encapsulated collection of properties (variables/arrays) and methods
(functions)
You’ve seen how string variables work. When you put numbers into a string, they’re treated as
text instead of numbers. For example, the following string treats the “123” exactly like “Elm
Street” — as text.
funHouse=”123 Elm Street”;
Likewise, if you used the following assignment, you’d still have text and the results would
show it:
firstNumber=”123”;
secondNumber=”7”;
total=firstNumber + secondNumber;
document.write(total);
Instead of showing “130” the results show “1237.” Next try the following:
firstNumber=123;
secondNumber=7;
document.write(total);
19_977279-ch12.indd 245 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Now, the results show “130” as expected when you add numbers. Whenever the plus (+)
operator is used with text, it’s called concatenation and simply strings everything together. If
you put any kind of text in a list of numbers to be added, and only one of the numbers is text,
all the rest will be treated as text and concatenated.
Different types of variables together

The following program (SimpleVariable.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5) uses all the different kinds of data. You’ll have to look closely at
the different data types to determine the expected results. The comments in the code should
help you see all the JavaScript data types.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
/*BAD9CB,048C3F,7BA651,F2BE5C,F2A950 */
body {
background-color:#BAD9CB;
color:#048C3F;
}
</style>
246 function advertisement()
{
billVar=”Brought to you by Bill’s variable.”;
return billVar;
}
//Variable with function
popUpAd=advertisement();
document.write(popUpAd);
//Variable with HTML5 code
cr=”<br>”;
document.write(cr);
// Variable with string
funHouse=” Elm Street”;
// Boolean variable
var fate=true;
// Variable with string
query=”Will I find true happiness in HTML5? The answer is: “;
// Variables with numbers
fun=100;
house=23;
// Math with variables
funPlusHouse=fun + house;
// Adding numeric and string variable (concatenation)
showAddress=funPlusHouse + funHouse;
19_977279-ch12.indd 246 10/28/10 10:14 PM

browser=navigator.platform;
document.write(showAddress);
document.write(cr);
document.write(query);
document.write(fate);
document.write(cr);
document.write(browser);
</script>
<title>Simple Variable</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Depending on the type of computer you use, the browser variable’s value will be different. (It
certainly varies.) The page was run on both a Windows 7 and Macintosh computer to see how
one variable varied. Figure 12-4 shows the different output from the same program.
247
Figure 12-4: Displaying variable computer types on the screen.
The variable value, navigator.platform is an object. The navigator object has a

property, platform, that tells what type of computer the browser is running on. In testing the
program in Windows 7 (refer to the top panel in Figure 12-4) with a 64-bit operating system,
the results show Win32. That’s because the browsers tested were 32-bit, including an early
version of Internet Explorer 9. The MacIntel results (refer to the bottom panel in Figure
12-4) were on a Macintosh computer with an Intel processor displayed on an Opera browser.
19_977279-ch12.indd 247 10/28/10 10:14 PM

ARRAYS
A variable can have only a single value at one time. The value can be a computed based on a
combination of different values, but once it’s stored inside a variable, it becomes one. For
instance, as shown in the previous section on variables,
firstNumber=123;
secondNumber=7;
The variable named total is the sum of the first two variables. It is a single entity. This would
be true were they concatenated as well. So, just remember: Variables can have only one value
at a time. Figure 12-5 provides a graphic illustration of the difference between variables and
arrays.
Variable Array
TrueLove stuff[0] stuff[1] stuff[2] stuff[3]

248
Variable name: Array name:
TrueLove stuff
Figure 12-5: Storing data in variables and arrays.
As you can see in Figure 12-5, only a single item is stored in the variable named TrueLove,
but the array, stuff, has lots of, well, stuff. You call each one of the stored datum with the
array name with a number in braces. So, stuff[1] is an anchor and stuff[2] is a
calculator.
Some applications require multiple values in a single object, making it easier to recall and
store data. Each value in an array is called an element. You reference each by a number,
beginning with zero (0) and numbered sequentially (refer to Figure 12-5). Suppose you have
an array named fruit. You might assign values as shown here:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
fruit=new Array();
fruit[0]=”rasberries”;
fruit[1]=”peaches”;
fruit[2]=”apples”;
19_977279-ch12.indd 248 10/28/10 10:14 PM

fruit[3]=”plums”;
document.write(fruit[1]);
var myFruit=fruit.pop();
document.write(“<br>” +myFruit + “<br>”);
document.write(fruit.length);
</script>
<title>Array 1</title>
</head>
</html>
The result of the preceding program are the words peaches, plums, and 3 on the screen.
Peaches was pulled out of the array by number reference and placed into a screen output
function. Then using the pop() method, the element on the top of the array was placed into
a variable named myFruit and displayed to the screen. Finally, the pop() method removed
one element from the array and placed it into the myFruit variable, so now the array has a
length of 3 — and that’s what’s shown on the screen. Each element in an array works just like a
variable. The difference is that it’s part of a larger object — the array.
OBJECTS
The final data type used to store values is an object. (Wasn’t the Array an object? Yep. You’re
already ahead of the game!) All objects are similar to arrays in that they can hold more than a
single value. However, objects have several built-in properties. The properties have either
249
fixed values (called constants) or values that change depending on the circumstances. Even
the Array object has a built-in property — length. It returns the number of elements in the
array. So, if you add the following two lines to the array program in the previous section,
you’ll see how big the array is:
...
//Add the following two lines
document.write(“<br>”);
The value of fruit.length is 4 — it’s always one greater than the highest-numbered array
element because the length is the actual number of elements in the array beginning with the
value 1. (It’s one-based instead of zero-based.)
Some properties of objects are called methods. A method is a function that does something in
relation to the object. For example, an Array object method is pop(). The pop() method
returns the last element in the array. It’s a way that you can assign a variable an object’s
method — just as you can assign a variable a function. Let’s fix up that program from the last
section again. This time, the variable myFruit is assigned fruit.pop(). That means
whatever is on the top of the array stack is removed. However, if used in a variable assign-
ment, it assigns the removed element to the variable as the following fix-up of the previous
snippet shows:
19_977279-ch12.indd 249 10/28/10 10:14 PM

...
//Add the following three lines
var myFruit=fruit.pop();
document.write(“<br>” + myFruit + “<br>”);
When you test the program from the previous section with the above changes, you’ll see that
the last added element has a value of plum, and that’s what is printed to the screen. However,
the length is no longer 4, but now 3. That’s because the pop() method removes the element
from the array. (By the way, the var in front of the myFruit variable is optional to declare a
variable, but it helps to distinguish it from the array elements in this listing.)
Creating your own objects

If you create a few of your own objects, you can get an idea of how objects work in the DOM.
Also, to help clarify things, from now on, a reference to an object’s properties in general refers
to both properties and methods. However, when I get specific in talking about an object’s
individual parts, the reference will be either to a property (some characteristic of the object)
or a method (a function associated with the object).
Making objects is similar to declaring variables and assigning them values. The object itself is
sort of a base of operations for doing a lot of different things and having different characteris-
250 tics. The first step is simply to use a name and the keyword new. For example, the following
declares an object named AddingMachine:
AddingMachine=new Object();
Next, to add a property, you invent a new name for the property and assign it a value. The
object name and its property are separated by a dot (.). For example, the following adds a
property named firstNumber and assigns it a value of 4:
AddingMachine.firstNumber=4;
Just like a variable, you can change the firstNumber value to something else.
To add a method (a function) is just as easy. However, instead of using a named function, you
use an anonymous one. For example, the following adds the value of two properties for the
AddingMachine object and sends them to the screen:
AddingMachine.total=function()
{
document.write(this.firstNumber + this.secondNumber);
}
The keyword this is a reference to AddingMachine. It’s the same as writing Adding
Machine.firstNumber. Notice also that function() has no name — it’s anonymous.
19_977279-ch12.indd 250 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Now it’s time to put it all together and see what happens (see UserObject.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5):
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
AddingMachine=new Object();
//Object properties
AddingMachine.firstNumber=4;
AddingMachine.secondNumber=66;
//Object method
AddingMachine.total=function()
{
document.write(this.firstNumber + this.secondNumber);
}
//Fire off the method!
AddingMachine.total();
</script>
<title>Simple Object</title>
</head>
</html>
Note that the method AddingMachine.total() uses the method document.write(). 251
(You can spot methods in JavaScript by looking for the parentheses.) Also, note that to fire off
the method, the name of the object and function are listed and off it goes. When you test it,
you’ll see that the results are the total of the two properties.
Back to the Document Object Model and browser objects

This chapter has covered a lot of territory very quickly. In fact, the last section is the first step
in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). So, if you didn’t pick up everything, don’t worry.
The purpose is to make you more comfortable with the DOM in HTML5. If you understand
terms like properties and methods, they won’t seem as foreign.
As we get into many of the newer features in HTML5, you’ll be better able to navigate through
all the terms and understand what’s going on. In other words, it’ll be easier to learn. That
doesn’t mean you have to become an OOP programmer to understand this stuff. It just means
that a little OOP goes a long way toward helping you understand the DOM and browser
objects that come in handy when using elements like canvas.
Throughout the book, you’ve seen objects that belong to the browser. I didn’t discuss them as
such, but that’s what they are. The browser has the following objects that are important to
using HTML5. Included are the following:
History
Location
19_977279-ch12.indd 251 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Navigator
Screen
Window
For example, in the “Types of data” section earlier in this chapter, you saw how the naviga-
tor.platform property was used to find the type of computer in use.
The HTML5 DOM itself has far more objects, and the most used is the Document property.
The list of objects is the same as the list of elements. So, a list of all the DOM objects is a list of
all elements, plus some others that are used in conjunction with the DOM. For example, the
following are included in the HTML5 DOM but aren’t exactly elements:
Document
Event
Image
Link
Meta
Some of these objects we see in tags. For example, the image object is seen in the <img> tags.
Its properties are similar to the img element’s attributes. Others, like document are implied
in that a Web page is the document. The event object is employed in event handling with
252 methods such as onClick. The rest are elements, so they should be familiar. But instead
of attributes in a tag, expect to find properties with the same names and functions as equiva-
lent attributes.
TAKE THE WHEEL

Data sources are important to understand, and one way to understand them is to practice
using different types. The challenge is to do the following:
1. Select a string — one of your favorite sayings or pieces of information. For example,
“All objects are made up of properties and methods.”
2. Assign the string to a variable and use document.write() to send it to the screen.
3. Break down the string into several separate words and place each word into a
different array element and then using the array.pop() method and document.
write() to display them on the screen in a single message.
4. Finally, create an object with a property that is assigned the string that you’ve
selected. Create a method for the property that displays the string to the screen.
19_977279-ch12.indd 252 10/28/10 10:14 PM

CHAPTER 13
SMASHING HTML5
13 THUNDERING
YOUR SITE WITH
CANVAS
ONE OF THE most important additions to the most part, writing JavaScript code is just
HTML5 is the <canvas> tag. With it, you can assigning values to properties, and since you
draw just about anything on an HTML5 page. know how to do that from assigning values to
With just two attributes, width and height, attributes — height=”200”, for instance —
there’s not a lot to remember about attributes. there’s less that’s new about writing this kind of
However, the canvas element is implemented in code than you may think.
what might be called a Document Object Model
(DOM) style. Chapter 12 describes the DOM in To help you along, the JavaScript in use employs
detail. Essentially, DOM style means writing the what you might call “OOP Lite.” The DOM
required JavaScript with references to objects and represents object oriented programming (OOP)
their methods and properties. in that all references are to different objects and
their properties. By setting up the JavaScript
If that kind of talk has you quaking in your using a similar style — creating objects and then
flip-flops, relax. Throughout the book, the assigning them properties and methods — your
HTML5 tags (elements) have used attributes, and code will look a lot like expressions taken from
attributes are just properties of the elements. For the DOM.
20_977279-ch13.indd 253 10/28/10 10:14 PM

CANVAS BASICS
Because the canvas element is a crucial part of HTML5 and works only with HTML5-
compatible browsers, the first thing you want to do is to let users know that they need an
HTML5 browser. Several methods are available to find out whether canvas works with their
browser, but the easiest and most informative (to the user) is to place a message in the
<canvas> container. Only users without HTML5-compatible browsers see the text in the
container. For example, the following line, easily mistaken for the outcry of a drama queen,
gets the message across. At the same time it remains invisible to users who have HTML5
browsers:
<canvas id=”colorScheme” width=”600” height=”100” >Come on, Jack & Jill! You
<i>really</i> need to get an HTML5 Compatible browser. You’re missing <b>canvas!</
b></canvas>
I dug up an old (really old!) Internet Explorer browser for the Mac. Figure 13-1 shows what
appeared when I opened the page with the <canvas> tag.
254
Figure 13-1: Message viewed with a non-HTML5 browser.
Just to be fair, I ran the same program in an early (really early!) version of Internet Explorer 9.
As you can see in Figure 13-2, the canvas drawing appears, but the message does not.
Figure 13-2: Canvas on an HTML5 browser.
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CHAPTER 13: THUNDERING YOUR SITE WITH CANVAS
We could write something more sophisticated, but the message is the message, so let’s leave
well enough alone. If you’ve got an HTML5 browser, everything is Jake. If not, the user finds
out why not in a message. (You may want to fine-tune the message for your audience — from
Jane Austen to Ivan the Terrible.)
Before we get rolling on creating your own drawings, let’s look at one more way that you can
keep out of hot water with non-HTML5 users. In addition to adding text, you can add photos
or anything else in the <canvas> container. For example, the following script (Canvas-
Photo.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) provides
an alternative to a more sophisticated presentation of a photo image using canvas.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
body {
color:#0FC;
}
img {
padding-top:10px;
padding-bottom:10px;
}
</style> 255
<title>Fisherkid</title>
</head>
<body>
<body onLoad=”CanvasMaster.showCanvas()”>
<canvas id=”photo” width=”300” height=”272” >Gentle viewer, if you see this message,
that means (alas) you don’t have an HTML5 browser. (But you can see the photo and
caption.)<br>
<figure> <img src=”fisherkid.jpg” width=”300” height=”272” alt=”kid fishing”/><br>
<figcaption>Kid Fishing</figcaption>
</figure>
</canvas>
</body>
</html>
Not only will the non-HTML5 viewer get the message about updating his browser, but he’ll
get it in the style described in CSS3. He’ll also be able to view both the picture and the
caption, as shown in Figure 13-3.
If you do use an HTML5 browser, the preceding program presents a big blank green screen
with nothing on it. So, be sure that if you’re using an alternative for non-HTML5 browsers,
you have something actually in canvas.
20_977279-ch13.indd 255 10/28/10 10:14 PM

256
Figure 13-3: Providing alternative materials for non-HTML5 browsers.

© David Sanders
A SIMPLE CANVAS IMPLEMENTATION

When you’re working with Adobe Dreamweaver to create an HTML5 page, you can view the
page in the Design mode to preview what will show up on the screen. However, with material
inside a <canvas> container, all you see is the outline. That outline provides an excellent
visual picture of how canvas allocates a certain part of the page for rendering images even
thought it appears as a blank rectangle.
Basically, you’re starting off with an empty canvas defined by the width and height
attributes of the <canvas> tag. If you think about the first step in creating a canvas on your
Web page in terms of stretching a canvas on a frame, it helps you visualize the process.
Understanding the grid

To work successfully with canvas, you have to understand the grid and the Cartesian
coordinates. Basically, the upper-left corner is the 0,0 position on your page. As you move to
20_977279-ch13.indd 256 10/28/10 10:14 PM

the right, the first value increases. If you move 15 pixels to the right, the value becomes
15,0 — this is the x-axis. As you move down, the second value (y-axis) increases. If you
moved down 20, the position would be expressed as 15,20. Suppose, that you wanted to use
that position as your starting point and create a 100-pixel square. It helps to visualize the
position and size relative to the Web page with the grids, but you get a clearer idea of the
image you’re creating without the grid marks. Using both will help.
Setting up for canvas drawings

Now we’re set to fill the blank box. To do so requires JavaScript. The only thing you do with
the <canvas> tag is describe the area where you can place your graphics in a rendering
context and a reference ID. So, starting small, this first little drawing will begin with the
following tag:
<canvas id=”redHot” width=”100” height=”100” >
This should be pretty familiar. The width and height were simplified to equal 100 pixels,
and the new name of the canvas object is redHot. I’ve already covered the closing
</canvas> tag and message in the container. And the rest of the work is all JavaScript
programming working with the DOM.
As noted earlier, I’m going to try to simplify things by using a little OOP in the JavaScript to
reflect the programming structure of the DOM. So, the first task is to create an object and a
method for it. 257
CanvasMaster=new Object();
CanvasMaster.showCanvas=function()...
As you saw in Chapter 12, all that does is set up an object and a method for the object — a
function that will call the JavaScript operations when we need it.
Next, the program needs a way to access the canvas DOM node. That’s the part of the DOM
that has canvas and canvas-related methods and properties. The first step is to create an
object that holds the DOM node. Instead of thinking of assigning a node to a variable, think
of it as creating an instance of an object that has the properties and methods of the canvas
object.
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“redHot”);
That line creates an object that contains the canvas object named redHot.
Once we have an instance of a canvas object, the program needs a rendering context. About
the only context available is one called 2d, suggesting a two-dimensional drawing context.
The canvas object (canvasNow) has a method called getContext() to do what it says: get
the rendering context.
contextNow = canvasNow.getContext(‘2d’);
20_977279-ch13.indd 257 10/28/10 10:14 PM

The instance of the rendering context is named contextNow. It has the methods and
properties of the 2d rendering context.
Making the drawing

Before going on to the actual drawing, you may be wondering about the canvasNow and
contextNow objects. Aren’t those really variables? After all, variables can be assigned
objects. Well, that’s one way to think about them, but the variables are assigned objects with
their own methods and properties. So, aren’t they actually instances of objects? When a
variable is assigned a real number, it is, for all intents and purposes, a number. You can do
math operations just as you can with a literal number. Instead of quibbling about whether the
program structures are really variables or objects, just treat them as objects (just as variables
with text or numbers can be treated as strings or numbers).
First, assign the drawing a color. You can use any of the techniques available to create a color
as described in Chapter 4. This example uses the hexadecimal format:
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#cc0000’;
The fillStyle property is only for the fill color and not the stroke (outline) of the object.
Next, the fill color needs a shape to fill. To fill a rectangle, use the following:
258 contextNow.fillRect(5,20,100,100);
To explain everything in that last piece of code, Figure 13-4 breaks it down.
X position
Width
Height
Y position
Figure 13-4: Details of the fillRect() method.
The first two values place it within the canvas area — not the whole Web page — and the
second two values specify the width and height of the rectangle.
The last requirement is actually to carry out filling the rectangle with the specified color. The
next line performs that task:
contextNow.fill();
No matter how many operations are defined, a single fill() method takes care of all the
fills defined in the larger method.
20_977279-ch13.indd 258 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Now that all the pieces are in place, it needs to be put together in an HTML5 program. The
following listing (SimpleSquare.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) contains all the script:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script language=”javascript”>
CanvasMaster.showCanvas=function()
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“redHot”);
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#cc0000’; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(5,20,100,100); // x, y, width, height
contextNow.fill();
}
</script>
body {
font-family:Verdana;
color:#cc0000;
}
259
</style>
<title>Red Square</title>
</head>
<figure>
<canvas id=”redHot” width=”100” height=”100” > You’re missing the Red Square! Get
HTML5, comrad! </canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Red Square </figcaption>
</figure>
</body>
</html>
As you can see, the program includes CSS3 and a simple caption along with the appropriate
<figure> and <figcaption> tags surrounding the <canvas> tag. The results of this
script are shown in Figure 13-5.
Notice that the script also contains a message for non-HTML5 browsers, but because Figure
13-5 shows the canvas image, the browser will not display any content in the <canvas>
container.
20_977279-ch13.indd 259 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 13-5: Simple canvas drawing

displayed in the Opera browser.
Working with multiple drawings

Now that you see how to create a single drawing, I’ll give you a look at creating multiple
drawings. While we’re at it, this should also be tested on a mobile device to see how well the
<canvas> tag and JavaScript work in a mobile environment.
The following script (Tortilla.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/

smashinghtml5) is very similar to the script used to create the red square shown in Figure
260 13-5. However, when drawing multiple objects, their position becomes more important, as the
following script shows:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//Color Scheme Values pasted here: 8C6E37,BFA380,593723,736055,261F1E
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“totillaHues”)
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#8C6E37’; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(5,20,100,100); // x, y, width, height
// first color
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#BFA380’; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(105,20,100,100); // second color
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#593723’; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(205,20,100,100); // third color
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#736055’; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(305,20,100,100); // fourth color
20_977279-ch13.indd 260 10/28/10 10:14 PM

contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#261F1E ‘; // hex value color

contextNow.fillRect(405,20,100,100); // fifth color
contextNow.fill(); // fill all!

}
</script>
body {
color:#570026;
}
</style>
<title>Feel Like a Tortilla!</title>
</head>
<figure>
<canvas id=”totillaHues” width=”500” height=”120” > No tortillas for you! Get your
HTML5 browser...pronto! </canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Tortilla Flat
</figcaption>
</figure>
</body>
</html>
The important parameters in this script are the first two in the fillRect() method. They’re 261
the x and y positions, and no two squares can be in the same space. The squares are lined up
in a horizontal row, so all you need to pay attention to is the x-value because the vertical
position is going to be the same.
Once all the fillStyle() and fillRect() methods are laid out, the drawings require
only a single fill() method to display them all. Figure 13-6 shows how the figure looks on
a mobile Safari browser on an iPhone.
Figure 13-6: Multiple drawings displayed on a mobile browser.
20_977279-ch13.indd 261 10/28/10 10:14 PM

The image in Figure 13-6 may appear vaguely familiar. In Chapter 4, the color scheme
program Adobe Kuler had a similar layout, and the colors were developed in Adobe Kuler.
Adding strokes and removing drawings

Two more methods associated with drawing rectangles are strokeRect() and clear-
Rect(). Both of these methods have parameters similar to the fillRect() method — x,
y, width, height. They function the same insofar as specifying which areas to add a stroke
or remove a drawing.
The following program (StrokeAndRemove.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.

com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how you can add three methods to the CanvasMaster
object, which I’ll call addStroke(), punchOut(), and chomp(). The first method draws
an outline within the canvas area, the second makes a hole in the middle of the rectangle, and
the third method removes everything in the defined area.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//colors: 595241,B8AE9C,FFFFFF,ACCFCC,8A0917
262 {
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“strokeAndChomp”);
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘#ACCFCC’;
contextNow.fillRect(5,20,100,100);
contextNow.fill();
}
CanvasMaster.addStroke=function()
{
contextNow.strokeStyle=’#595241’;
contextNow.strokeRect(7,22,91,76);
}
CanvasMaster.chomp=function()
{
contextNow.clearRect(5,20,100,100);
}
CanvasMaster.punchOut=function()
{
contextNow.clearRect(40,45,30,30);
}
</script>
body {
20_977279-ch13.indd 262 10/28/10 10:14 PM

color:#8A0917;
background-color:#B8AE9C;
}
a {
color:#595241;
margin-left:16px;
}
</style>
<title>Stroke and Cut</title>
</head>
<article>
<figure>
<canvas id=”strokeAndChomp” width=”100” height=”100” >You ought to see what
HTML5 browsers see! Get one now!</canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Square Work </figcaption>
</figure>
<section>
<p><a href=”#” onClick=”CanvasMaster.addStroke()”>Add Stroke</a></p>
</section>
<section>
<p><a href=”#” onClick=”CanvasMaster.chomp()”>Gobble Up Square</a></p>
</section>
<section> 263
<p><a href=”#” onClick=”CanvasMaster.punchOut()”>Punch Hole</a></p>
</section>
<section>
<p><a href=”#” onClick=”CanvasMaster.showCanvas()”>Replace Square</a></p>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
This page is formatted for a mobile device. It was tested in Opera Mini on an iPhone, as
shown in Figure 13-7.
A blue square appears on the initial load. When you add a stroke line, a frame appears just
inside the original image. If you add more strokes, you’ll find that the stroke darkens. When
you click the Punch Hole selection, a small square appears in the middle of the blue square.
The Gobble Up Square selection removes both the image and the stroke. If you click the Add
Stroke text after having removed the blue square, you’ll see the stroke line only with no blue
rectangle.
20_977279-ch13.indd 263 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 13-7: Adding a stroke and removing part or all of a rectangle.

264
IMAGES IN CANVAS AND SHADOWS
One of the fun and simple features of canvas is using it with loaded images. Figure 13-3
shows a typical example of what you can load into a Web page using the <img> tag. Using the
<img> tag is okay, but you can make it far more interesting with the <canvas> tag.
Loading an image into canvas

To load an image, whether it’s a GIF, a PNG, or a JPEG, requires an Image object that can be
created with JavaScript. Within the method used to create a rendering context, you risk
having your user see a blank where the loaded image goes unless you have an event that lets
you know that the file has loaded. Fortunately, that’s pretty simple to do using the onLoad
event handler, as the following snippet shows:
...
pic = new Image();
pic.onload = function()
{
contextNow.drawImage(pic,10,10);
}
pic.src = ‘imageName.jpg’;
...
20_977279-ch13.indd 264 10/28/10 10:14 PM

The rendering context method drawImage() expects three parameters:
The reference to the file that you’re loading: In this case, the label pic is the reference
name to the file being used.
The x and y position: It’s a little more involved than using the <img> tag, but not much,
and this method lets you place the image where you want it within the canvas
parameters.
The source of the image: You add the source of the image within the method that creates
the rendering context — not unlike the identification using the img element.
Adding a drop shadow

Adding a drop shadow to an image gives it a three-dimensional look — it’s elevated off the
page. The rendering context has four shadow properties:
shadowColor=”color”;
shadowOffsetX=horizontal value;
shadowOffsetY=horizontal value;
shadowBlur=blur value;
The color can be assigned using any of the methods discussed in Chapter 4. The shadow
offsets depend on how big you want your shadow. Experiment with different values, begin- 265
ning with about 5. In the following example, each is set to 10 to provide enough shadow to
make the image rise off the screen but not so much to overwhelm the image. Finally, the blur
value can be greater or smaller depending on both the offset values and the amount of blur
you want. With greater offset values, you need greater blur values.
To make the shadow have an effect on the image, all shadow properties must be entered
before writing the drawImage() method. That’s all there is to it. The other JavaScript to set
up the canvas context rendering is very similar to the drawings in the previous section. The
following code (PhotoShadows.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) loads the image and places the drop shadow on it:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//colors: F4F1BC,736F36,BFB95A
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“picFrame”);
pic = new Image();

20_977279-ch13.indd 265 10/28/10 10:14 PM

{
contextNow.shadowColor =’#BFB95A’;
contextNow.shadowOffsetX=10;
contextNow.shadowOffsetY=10;
contextNow.shadowBlur=4;
}
pic.src = ‘fisherkid.jpg’;
}
</script>
body {
color:#736F36;
background-color:#F4F1BC;
}
</style>
<title>Frame the Photo</title>
</head>
<article>
<figure>
<canvas id=”picFrame” width=”340” height=”300” > This is one picture you missed
because you don’t have HTML5. </canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
266 Photo with Drop Shadow</figcaption>
</figure>
</article>
</body>
</html>
Before putting in your own images, check their size and the size that the <canvas> tag has
reserved. In this case, there was enough room for both the image (a photograph) and the
graphic drop shadow. Figure 13-8 shows the results in a Google Chrome browser.
The color combinations used with the image are important. You’ll find that some colors work
better than others. The ones used in Figure 13-8 are a monochromatic set based on the colors
in the image. As you can see, the shadow nicely lifts the photo off the screen.
Compare the image in Figure 13-3 with the one in Figure 13-8. In Figure 13-3, you see what
happens with non-HTML5 browsers; in Figure 13-8, what HTML5 browsers can display. Also,
in this latest use of the same digital photo, the non-HTML5 browsers see only the message
that they’re not seeing the image. If you want, you can add the same image and color scheme
without the drop shadow for non-HTML5 browsers.
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Figure 13-8: Image and drop shadow with <canvas>.

© David Sanders
267
Working with filters

Before moving on to complex shapes, let’s take a look at using filters to add tints to images.
The Internet is a huge library of copyright-free photos and drawings; use your favorite search
engine to do an image search. (But remember that not every photo you find online is copy-
right-free — be sure you have permission to use any image you find.) Many of the drawings
are in black-and-white and can be a stark contrast to other elements of a page. One way to
integrate them is to add a filter, which you can easily do by creating a partially transparent
colored shape and place on top of the image. Using canvas, this process is quite easy. The
key to the process is the following line:
context.fillStyle = ‘rgba(rn, gn, bn, alpha)’;
Instead of using a hexadecimal value, it uses RGB with an “alpha” channel — rgba() — that
controls for transparency. The last parameter is a value between 0 and 1. The higher the value,
the more opaque the image will be. By using a value less than 1, you can control the degree of
opacity. The rest of the shape matches the dimensions of the image and is positioned in the
same space.
To integrate an image with the rest of the page — the plan is to add a color tint using the
background color. The following program (FilterImage.html in this chapter’s folder at
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www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) adds the image first and then draws the rectangle
object on top of it with a transparent fill color.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//colors: F26A4B,F2D091=rgb(242,208,145)
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“filterFrame”);
pic = new Image();

{
contextNow.fillStyle = ‘rgba(242, 208, 145, .6)’;
contextNow.fill();
}
pic.src = ‘dance.gif’;
}
268
</script>
body {
color:#F26A4B;
background-color:#F2D091;
}
</style>
<title>Filtering Images</title>
</head>
<article>
<figure>
<canvas id=”filterFrame” width=”472” height=”306” > Not only do you miss the
filtered image, but you miss the dance! Get an HTML5 browser! </canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Filtered Image</figcaption>
</figure>
</article>
</body>
</html>
Notice that the sequence first loaded the image and then placed the drawing on top using the
following snippet:
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contextNow.fillStyle = ‘rgba(242, 208, 145, .6)’;
contextNow.fill();
If the drawing is added first, the image simply sits on top of it as though no filter at all is used.
Now, with the added filter, the image better fits in with the page, as Figure 13-9 shows.
269
Figure 13-9: A filtered image blending in with the background.
Using Adobe Photoshop or some similar image-editing software, you could’ve added the filter
to the image and loaded the filtered image with a standard <img> tag. However, using
canvas and HTML5, you can make the changes without any additional software.
CREATING COMPLEX DRAWINGS WITH CANVAS

The simpler shapes are rectangles, and they’re terrific for squares and rectangles, but you can
only do so much with boxes before you need some lines and curves. This section looks at the
following complex drawing elements that are part of canvas. (The context term refers to the
name of the rendering context object.)
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context.beginPath()
context.moveTo(x, y)
context.closePath()
context.lineTo(x, y)
context.quadraticCurveTo(cpx, cpy, x, y)
context.bezierCurveTo(cp1x, cp1y, cp2x, cp2y, x, y)
context.arcTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, radius)
context.arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle, anticlockwise)
context.rect(x, y, w, h)
context.fill()
context.stroke()
context.clip()
context.isPointInPath(x, y)
Knowing how to use these methods with a <canvas> tag doesn’t ensure that they’ll look
good. The remainder of this chapter examines most of these methods. You should be well on
your way to creating many different shapes by the chapter’s end.
LINES AND MOVEMENT

270 The best way to start thinking about using the canvas tools for drawing is to visualize all
drawings on a grid, just as you did with rectangles. However, given the relative complexity of
freeform drawing, even with straight lines, the beginning point is with images on a grid.
Figure 13-10 shows two drawings that can be created with straight lines.
0,0 Each grid box is 20 x 20 pixels.
Figure 13-10: Images on a grid.
The grid boxes are 20 pixels wide and 20 pixels high. If you take a pencil and a piece of grid
paper (or turn on the grid on a drawing program), you can replicate the images in Figure
13-10. Starting with the left image in Figure 13-10, a typical drawing would consist of the
following steps:
20_977279-ch13.indd 270 10/28/10 10:14 PM

1. Place the pencil at position 40,20 on the grid.

To do this with the canvas DOM, use context.beginPath() and context.
moveTo(40,20). This is the starting point.
2. Draw a line from the starting point to about 72, 20 for the top of the briefcase handle.
Use context.lineTo(72,20) for the canvas equivalent.
3. Move the pencil down to about 72, 38.
Use context.lineTo(72,38) for a canvas drawing.
4. Continue in this manner until the outline of the briefcase is complete.
5. When you want to draw the inside of the handle, pick up your pencil, move to where
you want to start drawing the inside of the handle.
With canvas you use context.moveTo(x,y) to begin in a new position and then
use context.lineTo(x,y) to finish up. However, you do not have to reuse con-
text.beginPath().
6. In a pencil and pen drawing, as soon as your drawing is complete, you have the
outline of the briefcase. With canvas, you have to include context.stroke() to add the
lines.
When you come to the next-to-last point in your drawing, you can use the context.
closePath() method to go the point you started, and that is used in the program. The
following script (SimpleLineDrawing.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5) provides all the steps. 271
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//colors: 8C6E37,BFA380
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“simpleDraw”);
contextNow.beginPath();
contextNow.moveTo(40,20);
contextNow.lineTo(72,20);
contextNow.closePath();
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contextNow.stroke();
}
</script>
body {
color:#000000;
}
</style>
<title>Filtering Images</title>
</head>
<article>
<figure>
<canvas id=”simpleDraw” width=”90” height=”80” > If you can identify the draw-
ing, you win a jillion dollars! Oh, I’m sorry . . . looks like you don’t have an
HTML5 browser.</canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Picasso Was Here</figcaption>
</figure>
</article>
</body>
</html>
272
Figure 13-11 shows what you can expect to see. (If you worked out the coordinates on your
own, yours probably looks better!)
Figure 13-11: Image drawn in canvas.
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So far so good, but the original briefcase is brown, so it’s going to need some color. The way to
color is the same as it is for rectangles: Use context.fillStyle =”color”. The
complex drawing methods include context.fill() to fill in an outline. So, taking out the
context.stroke(), replacing it with context.fill(), and adding a fillStyle
method should do the trick. Figure 13-12 shows the results.
Figure 13-12: The filled image covering the handle.
In looking at Figure 13-12, you can see that the outline and color are correct, but instead of a
273
handle there’s a block. Whenever a series of drawing methods are used without beginning a
new path, and then when the context.fill() method is called, it fills it to the beginning
of the path. As a result, everything is filled and not just the parts you want.
To fix this, two context.fill() methods are employed. One is at the end of the first
outline of the briefcase, and the second is at the end of the outline for the handle. The first is
filled with brown, and the second is filled with white. Additionally, a second context.
beginPath() is added at the beginning of the drawing of the handle. The following
program (SimpleLineDrawingFilled.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5) has all the code revised to generate the filled image.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
//colors: 960, fff, 000
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“briefCase”);
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contextNow.fillStyle =”#960”;
contextNow.fill();
contextNow.fillStyle =”#fff”;
contextNow.fill();
}
</script>
body {
color:#000;
}
</style>
274 <title>Filled Line Drawing</title>
</head>
<article>
<figure>
<canvas id=”briefCase” width=”90” height=”80” > If you can identify the drawing,
you win a jillion dollars! Oh, I’m sorry . . . looks like you don’t have an HTML5
browser.</canvas>
<figcaption> <br/>
Picasso Was Here</figcaption>
</figure>
</article>
</body>
</html>
When you test this revision, the results are pretty close the original drawing. Compare Figure
13-10 and Figure 13-13 to see how close the program-generated image is to the original.
You can use the lines to draw anything that has no curves. In the next section, you’ll see how
to add curves to your artistic canvas tools.
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Figure 13-13: The final drawing of the briefcase.
CURVES
Making curves, even with drawing tools, is trickier than drawing straight lines. To understand
how to make curves, I’ll start this section with a discussion of arcs and the canvas DOM
methods for creating them. We’ll look at some of the geometry, but not a lot. (You do need a
275
little understanding of geometry, but don’t worry — it’s basic.)
The first thing that you need to understand is the difference between degrees and radians.
Most people know that a circle has 360 degrees. On a compass rose, 360 or 0 degrees (12
o’clock) is due north. As you move clockwise to 90 degrees (3 o’clock), the compass points
east; at 180 degrees (6 o’clock), south; and at 270 degrees (9 o’clock), west.
However, you have to use radians instead of degrees, so all degrees must be converted to
radians. Use the following formula:
Radians = (PI ÷ 180) × degrees
So, let’s say that you want to know the radians for due west (9 o’clock), 270 degrees:
Radians = (3.14159265 ÷ 180) = 0.01745329251994

Radians = 0.01745329251994 × 270
Radians = 4.71238898
A simple way to do the same thing is to just multiply degrees by 0.01745329251994 or in

JavaScript write:
radians = (Math.PI/180)* degrees;
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You can find plenty of calculators online to do the conversion for you.
Arcs
The canvas DOM method for drawing arcs is context.arc(). The method has several
parameters that need to be understood in concert and individually:
x,y: Circle’s center

radius: Radius of circle
startAngle: Start point of arc expressed in radians
endAngle: End point of arc expressed in radians
anticlockwise: Boolean (true is counterclockwise and false is clockwise)
I find it helpful to envision either a compass rose or a clock with the four cardinal directions
and time/degrees — north (12 o’clock or 0 degrees), east (3 o’clock or 90 degrees), south (6
o’clock or 180 degrees), and west (9 o’clock or 270 degrees). A full arc statement looks like the
following:
contextNow.arc(150,100,50,six,0,true);
This arc has its center at x = 150 and y = 100, and it has a radius of 50. The start angle is set to
6, which is a variable that we’ve created to represent the 6 o’clock position of 180 degrees. The
276 variable’s value has been converted to radians. Both degrees and radians have the same value
at the 12 o’clock position (0), and it is used as the ending angle. Finally, the arc is set to true —
anticlockwise.
This next program is one used to experiment with different arcs. Four variables — 12, 3, 6,
and 9 — are set in radians corresponding to the positions on a clock. Certain statements are
commented out but will be used later.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“beHappy”);
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// RADCON = (Math.PI/180) ;
RADCON=0.01745329251994;
twelve=0;
three = RADCON * 90;
six = RADCON * 180;
nine = RADCON * 270;
contextNow.arc(125,100,50,six,twelve,true);
//contextNow.closePath();
//contextNow.fill()
}
</script>
body {
color:#cc0000;
}
</style>
<title>Smile</title>
</head>
<figure>
<canvas id=”beHappy” width=”300” height=”200” > You don’t see a smile because you 277
don’t have an HTML5 browser. No smile for you!</canvas>
<figcaption>
<p>Rectangle represents canvas boundaries</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</body>
</html>
The RADCON variable is a constant (π ÷ 180), so all degrees were set to radians by multiplying
their values by RADCON. As noted, the variable names represent the positions on a clock. In
addition, a rectangle around the area where the arc is drawn represents the boundaries of the
<canvas> tag’s width and height. Figure 13-14 shows the result.
The starting point of the arc is on the left, and it moved anticlockwise to the ending point on
the right. Change the following line:
to:
contextNow.arc(125,100,50,six,twelve,false);
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Figure 13-14: An arc in canvas.
That changed the drawing from anticlockwise to clockwise, but it made a major difference, as
you’ll see when you test it.
278 Next, using the same program, change the line back to:
Then remove the comment lines (//) from the following line:
//contextNow.closePath();
And test it again. The final change to the program will fill the arc. Uncomment the line from
the following:
//contextNow.fill()
to this:
contextNow.fill()
And add comment lines so that the stroke statement reads:
//contextNow.stroke()
When the changes are made, your arc now looks like a kettle, as shown in Figure 13-15.
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Figure 13-15: An arc with a closed path and fill.
The only way to really learn to work with arcs is to practice with them. Use the script in this
section to try different things.
279
Circles and gradients
Thus far, only a single type of fill has been used — a solid one. In this section, you’ll see how
to make a circle using an arc and fill it with a gradient.
First, making circles is easy using the context.arc() method. The radian parameters are 0
and Math.PI*2. And the anticlockwise parameter is false. (That’s the trick.) For instance,
this next example uses the following line to create a big circle that will be filled with a gradi-
ent, to make it look like a sunset:
contextNow.arc(200,200,150,0,Math.PI*2,false);
To create a gradient fill, both linear and radial, is fairly straightforward. The first step is using
the canvas DOM context.createLinearGradient() method. The method expects four
parameters: x0, y0, x1, y1. The gradient fill moves from x0 to x1 and from y0 to y1. A
straight linear gradient from left to right would have a single value in x1, and the rest would be
0. A gradient from top to bottom would have value in either y0 or y1, with the rest set to 0.
To set the gradient colors, use the gradient.addColorStop() method. It expects two
parameters. The first is a zero-based number from 0 to 1 and the second is the color. Once
that’s completed, assign the context.fillStyle the gradient. The following snippet
shows the steps in adding a gradient fill:
sunsetGradient=contextNow.createLinearGradient(0, 0, 0,379);
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sunsetGradient.addColorStop(0, “yellow”);
sunsetGradient.addColorStop(1, “#cc0000”)
contextNow.fillStyle = sunsetGradient;
In this particular example, the gradient is a vertical one. The first color, yellow, is at the top,
and the second color, red, is at the bottom. Putting it all together, the following script (Sun-
set.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) creates a
sunset for you.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
canvasNow = document.getElementById(“sunset”);
sunsetGradient=contextNow.createLinearGradient(0, 0, 0,379);
sunsetGradient.addColorStop(0, “yellow”);
sunsetGradient.addColorStop(1, “#cc0000”)
contextNow.fillStyle = sunsetGradient;
contextNow.arc(200,200,150,0,Math.PI*2,false);
280 contextNow.closePath();
contextNow.fill()
}
</script>
body {
color:#cc0000;
}
</style>
<title>Sunset</title>
</head>
<figure>
<canvas id=”sunset” width=”400” height=”400” > A shame you can’t see the beautiful
sunset because you don’t have an HTML5 browser. Aloha... </canvas>
<figcaption>
<p>Sunset</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</body>
</html>
When you test the page, you’ll see a big circle with a yellow-to-red gradient. You can use the
same gradient technique with other shapes as well. Figure 13-16 is displayed in the mobile
version of Safari on an iPhone.
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Figure 13-16: A circle with gradient fill.

281
There’s far more that you can do with canvas, and one of the best features of images created
using canvas DOM objects is that they aren’t as expensive (they don’t take as much band-
width) to load as bitmapped graphic files. We’ve only skimmed the surface of this new
powerful element in HTML5.
TAKE THE WHEEL

Working with canvas is so much fun and varied that it’s hard to know where to begin. So,
try the following little projects to test-drive this great new element in HTML5:
In Figure 13-13, you see two line objects — a briefcase and a house. See if you can draw
the house using the methods employed for creating the briefcase.
Take an image of a picture frame, and superimpose another image that appears to be in
the frame. (This project requires you to fix the frame and image sizes so that one will fit
in the other.)
Find or create a digital photo and superimpose a sunset on top of it. (Alternatively, create
an image with another kind of gradient and superimpose it on a digital photo or other
image. What about a gradient filter?)
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20_977279-ch13.indd 282 10/28/10 10:14 PM
CHAPTER 14
SMASHING HTML5
14 ADDING FORMS
ONE OF THE most important features of any people using computers. Instead, it treats people
Web page is its ability to interact with a person. like something they’re not, and that’s bound to
In computer science lingo, there’s a subfield called get you in trouble sooner or later. This chapter
human computer interface, which treats humans shows both how to add interactive forms and
as another type of interface like a printer, USB treat people like people.
drive, or Webcam. This doesn’t dehumanize
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ADDING A FORM
Forms are really in two parts (even more in some cases). The first part is the <form> tag that
sets up a container for different kinds of input. The typical form can be envisioned as the
following:
Begin Form
Input 1
Input 2
Input 3
Input 4
End Form
So in discussing forms, we’re really talking about the form and its attributes and input
elements and their attributes. With HTML5 forms, you’ll find plenty of new attributes and
elements.
Just so that you don’t get bored, the following (degree2radians.html in this chapter’s
folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) is an example of a simple calculator for
converting degrees into radians (see Chapter 13 for a practical use for the converter). Just
enter the degrees you want converted, and you’ll be presented with the equivalent radians.
284
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
FormMaster=new Object();
FormMaster.resolveForm=function()
{
const RADCON=Math.PI/180;
degreesNow=document.converter.degrees.value;
radiansNow=degreesNow * RADCON;
document.converter.radians.value=radiansNow;
}
</script>
/*048ABF,049DBF,F2F2F2,595959,0D0D0D */
h3 {
color:#595959;
}
body {
color:#049DBF;
background-color:#0D0D0D;
}
</style>
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CHAPTER 14: ADDING FORMS
<title>Convert Degrees to Radians</title>

</head>
<body >
<article>
<header>
<h3>Degree to Radian Converter</h3>
</header>
<section>
<form name=converter>
Enter degrees:<br>
<input type=number name=degrees required >
<br>
Radians:<br>
<input type=number name=radians>
<br>
<input type=submit name=submit value=”Convert to Radians” onClick=”FormMaster.
resolveForm()”>
</form>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
If you’re at all familiar with forms in HTML, you know that this form is different — it has a
number input that treats the entries as real numbers instead of text that has to be converted to
285
numbers by JavaScript. That wasn’t available in older versions of HTML. Figure 14-1 shows
the number “spinners” that appear in Opera when Web pages use the number input.
Figure 14-1: Entering numbers for calculations and conversion.
As you’ll see in this chapter, much is new, and using JavaScript and (later) PHP, you can do a
great deal with HTML5 forms. So, prepare to find a good deal of new features and reasons to
update your browsers to HTML5.
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GENERAL FORM ATTRIBUTES

The form (think the mother ship) has several attributes that impact every input element in the
form container. However, the first focus is on the form itself. It has the following attributes:
accept-charset
action
autocomplete
enctype
method
name
novalidate
target
Many of these attributes are rarely used and some only make sense when you start using
programs like PHP and ASP.NET where you pass data to and from a database. However, we’ll
examine them all.
Accept-charset, enctype, and novalidate

The accept-charset attribute, if specified at all, usually assigns utf-8 as the character
286 encoding to be used with the form data. That is, it treats all input as utf-8 encoding. A
simple statement like the following is sufficient:
<form name=motherShip accept-charset=utf-8>
If no character encoding is assigned, it is assumed to be unknown and uses the default

character encoding. When using multiple encodings, each is separated by a space in HTML5
instead of by commas and semicolons as in earlier versions of HTML.
Most of the time, the enctype attribute is left blank and uses the default state. The enctype
attribute has three keywords and states (keyword/state):
application/x-www-form-urlencoded (default)
multipart/form-data
text/plain
A form may be set up to accept plain text and would be assigned the following:
<form enctype=”text/plain”>
For the most part, though, this is another attribute that is not included in the <form> tag.
That’s because the default (urlencoded) is what you want.
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The novalidate attribute is a Boolean used in form submission; it blocks validation of the
user-inputted data during submission. This can save time, but it can also lead to foul-ups.
Sometimes a simple form or a wide-open (unknown submission data) form does not validate
because setting up traps for validation is unknown as well. If present in the form tag, the
submitted elements will not be validated:
<form nonvalidate>
That effectively blocks submission validation.
A better solution lies in the Boolean formnovalidate and required attributes that can
be placed in individual input elements. For example, the following form has no validation for
a cancel button and the middle name is not required, although the first and last names are.
<form name=motherShip accept-charset=utf-8>

First name:
<input type=text name=fn required>
<br>
Middle name:
<input type=text name=mn >
<br>
Last name:
<input type=text name=ln required>
<br>
<input type=submit name=submit value=”Send the info!”>
287
<input type=submit formnovalidate name=cancel value=”Cancel”>
</form>
The accept-charset, enctype, and novalidate attributes aren’t ones you’re likely to
use too much. However, the input element attributes for requiring data entry and nonvalida-
tion can be quite handy.
Action and method

You’re not going to need these two important attributes until Chapter 16, so this section is
going to be brief and to the point. The action attribute is assigned a URL that’s launched as
soon as the Submit button is clicked. It sends the form data to the URL (a server-side program
like Perl, PHP, or ASP). The method attribute is either POST or GET. When you send data
from your Web page or send and retrieve data, use POST. If all you want to do is retrieve data,
use GET. The following shows typical values assigned to the two attributes:
<form action=”http://www.sandlight.com/treasures.php” method=”post”>
In Chapter 16, you’ll find that both of these attributes are always used when dealing with PHP.
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Autocomplete
A fairly simple but important form attribute is autocomplete. It has two states, on and
off, and it defaults to on. Basically, if you do not want autocomplete, just set it to off.
Otherwise, it’s the default state of forms. Sometimes autocomplete can be a bother; if so, just
add the following line:
<form autocomplete=”off”>
With the state set to off, a reused word will not pop up. For example, if you change your
e-mail address, your old address may show up automatically in e-mail address boxes if the
autocomplete is not set to off.
Name and target

The name attribute is one of the most important attributes of a form because it’s used in the
DOM to identify it. As a property of the document object, it can be referenced either as an
array element, such as forms[0], or by name. Organizationally, it’s far easier to reference a
form and its children by a name.
In addition to a name attribute, forms have a global attribute, id. Both attributes have names.
In the DOM, the reference is to the name attribute. However, within a single Web document
(page), other elements can identify the form with a reference to the form id. What’s more, a
288 new feature of HTML5 is that the form child can exist outside the <form> container and
have a form attribute linking it to any form in the page. For example, the following text input
element is part of the form with the id of ralph.
<input type=text form=ralph name=hometown>
The text input element can be anywhere on the page, and that means designers don’t have to
put all the input in one place. Try the following script (FormID.html in this chapter’s folder
at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) and test it with Opera (which has implemented
this new feature).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
favorite = document.formName.favURL.value;
personName=document.formName.person.value;
message=personName + “’s favorite Web site is “ +favorite;
document.formName.output.value=message;
}
</script>
21_977279-ch14.indd 288 10/28/10 10:14 PM

h3 {
color:#97CCA6;
}
body {
color:#EFF09E;
background-color:#AB1F33;
}
</style>
<title>Remote Form Inputs</title>
</head>
<body >
<article>
<header>
<h3>IDs to Connect</h3>
</header>
<section> What is your very favorite Web site?<br>
<label>Favorite Site:
<input type=url form=formID name=favURL>
</label>
</section>
<section>
<blockquote> This section represents a break between the first input (requesting
a URL) and the rest of the form to which the URL form belongs. This gives designers 289
far more leeway in putting together an interactive site. </blockquote>
</section>
<section>
<form name=formName id=formID>
<label>What’s your name?
<input type=text name=person>
</label>
<br>
Output:<br>
<textarea name=output cols=50 rows=5></textarea>
<br>
<input type=submit name=submit value=”Gather in the Chickens”
onClick=”FormMaster.resolveForm()”>
</form>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
Notice that inside the <form> container with the name=formName and id=formID is a
single input element, a <textarea> tag and a Submit button. More important, though,
notice that the input element with the name=favURL is outside of the form container.
However, it assigns itself the id of the form on the page — formID. In HTML5, it’s treated as
though it were inside the <form> container. Figure 14-2 shows that the data entered in the
21_977279-ch14.indd 289 10/28/10 10:14 PM

url type input element (name=favURL) is picked up by the DOM in the JavaScript as part
of the same form as the rest of the form input elements belonging to the form named
formName.
290
Figure 14-2: Input can be placed outside of the form container.
Now, you don’t have to worry about where you put your input forms. As long as input
elements are assigned the form ID of the form, they’re treated as though they’re inside the
form container.
The target attribute refers to the browsing context of the form upon form submission. If no
target value is assigned, the browsing context is the same as if _self were assigned to a target
attribute. The other browsing contexts are _blank, _parent, or _top. The _blank
browsing context is quite helpful where you have information from a server-side script that
replaces the content on the calling page with its own content. Using _blank enables users to
see both the calling page and the information from the called page.
THE FORM AS PART OF THE DOM

Although the DOM is generally discussed as an arrangement of nodes, it can also be
described in terms of objects — after all object is DOM’s middle name! In order to see how
forms and inputs are arranged in the DOM, you can use JavaScript references to different
parts of a form. The DOM references the form elements as a form array within a document.
The input elements related to a form are array elements of the form with the first node being
21_977279-ch14.indd 290 10/28/10 10:14 PM

elements[0], using a zero-based counting system. Likewise, forms make up a zero-based

array with the first form being forms[0]. (Note: Both elements and forms are plural, even
though <element> and <form> are singular.)
To help see the parts in a DOM arrangement, the following simple script (NameID.html in
this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) demonstrates different
ways of referencing the same objects in a document with forms. The preferred manner is by
object and property name. The different combinations are for demonstration only. It also uses
several types of input as well.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
alpha = document.motherShip.elements[0].value;
beta = document.forms[0].secondInput.value;
gamma = document.motherShip.thirdInput.value;
delta = document.forms[0].elements[3].value;
epsilon = document.motherShip.fifthInput.value;
const cr=”\n”;
message=alpha+cr+beta+cr+gamma+cr+delta+cr+epsilon;
document.motherShip.output.value=message; 291
}
</script>
h3 {
color:#677E52;
}
body {
color:#89725B;
background-color:#B0CC99;
}
</style>
<title>DOM and Forms</title>
</head>
<body >
<article>
<header>
<h3>DOM, the Form, and the Nodes</h3>
</header>
<form name=motherShip>
<input type=number name=firstInput>
Number<br>
<input type=email name=secondInput>
21_977279-ch14.indd 291 10/28/10 10:14 PM

E-mail<br>
<input type=text name=thirdInput>
Text<br>
<input type=text name=fourthInput>
Text<br>
<input type=url name=fifthInput>
URL<br>
<textarea cols=”15” rows=”6” name=output></textarea>
<input type=button value=”Send to DOM” onClick=”FormMaster.resolveForm()”>
</form>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
When you test the program, enter the appropriate text and numbers and them click the button,
Send to DOM. In the JavaScript program, notice that as long as either the element names or
their proper element name (or node name) is used, the entered materials are sent to the text
area that is used for an output display. Figure 14-3 shows the results you can expect to see.
292
Figure 14-3: User entries displayed on the page.
The contents are retrieved through the DOM paths and placed into variables and then sent to
the <textarea> element for display. Between the five elements a constant (const cr=”\n”)
places a control character to force a line feed.
21_977279-ch14.indd 292 10/28/10 10:14 PM

THE MANY KINDS OF INPUT

One of the major new features of HTML5 is the addition of several different types of input
attributes. Not only that, but the different input attributes work with mobile devices. For
example, if you use an email or url input type, a special keyboard with dot (.) and dot-com
(.com) appears when you begin to enter data into the form on some mobile devices.
Along with new types of input are additional attributes that affect how your page interacts
with users. Of the 29 input attributes, 11 are new to HTML5. Like the new types of input, we
want to see how to use these attributes. Because of so many types of input and other
attributes, they’ve been gathered in two tables. Table 14.1 shows all the different type values
you can use with the type attribute and Table 14.2 shows all the attributes, each with a short
description.
Table 14.1 Type Values for the HTML5 Input Element

Type Value Features Type Value Features
button Action button checkbox Selection
color* Color well date* Date picker
datetime* Date picker datetime-local* Date picker
email E-mail address file File upload
hidden Not displayed image Image coordinates 293

month* Date picker number* Numeric value
password Hides password radio Selection
range* Number range reset Clears entries
search* Search word submit Send form data
tel Telephone number text String value
time* Date picker url* Web address
week* Date picker
*New to HTML5
At the time of this writing, not all these types have been implemented in the major browsers.
However, because browsers keep working to fully implement the new HTML5 standards,
don’t be afraid to experiment on your own with different types. Now for the general input
attributes (including type!) in Table 14.2.
21_977279-ch14.indd 293 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Table 14.2 Input Element Attributes

Input Attribute Features Input Attribute Features
accept File type accepted alt Hint of file loading
autocomplete* Complete typing autofocus* Sets focus to field
checked Selected state disabled Unusable
form* Set form id formaction* Form override
formenctype* Form override formmethod* Form override
formnovalidate* Form override formtarget* Form override
height* Height in pixels list* Datalist suggest
max* Maximum value maxlength Maximum length
min* Minimum value multiple Multiple values
name DOM name pattern* Regular expression
placeholder* Disappears on entry readonly Cannot input
required* Must fill size Num char visible
src Source step* Number of steps
type Input kind value Assigned value

294
width* Width in pixels
*New to HTML5
With all the different combinations of attributes and their values, the next several sections
take a look at different groupings of form-related elements, attributes, and values in combina-
tions. The first section covers using the datalist element with the list and form
attributes. As with all the following sections, this one packs in as many features as possible
while still focusing on the key features under discussion.
THE LIST ATTRIBUTE, THE URL TYPE, AND DATALISTS

One of the new attributes that can be used with forms is list. At the beginning of this
chapter, I noted that Web pages should be smooth, interactive experiences for users. The less
work that users have to put into an interactive form the better. The list attribute provides a
list of suggested items in an input element, and users may select from the list or type in a
response. However, the list attribute is actually a reference to a <datalist> tag elsewhere
in the Web page. Further, if you place the <datalist> container within a <form> con-
tainer, the <input> elements after the data list don’t show up on the page. So, what you have
to do is to provide an id attribute in the <datalist> tag and assign it to the list attribute
in the <input> tag. The data list is kept outside of the <form> container but is connected
through the data list’s id.
21_977279-ch14.indd 294 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Displaying a choice in the alert window

A simple example sets up an input for users to type in or select a URL. After the URL is
entered, the user presses a Submit button and an alert window pops up with the address. The
following script (DataList.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5) shows how to put all the parts together.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
place=document.traveler.getURL.value;
alert(place);
}
</script>
h3 {
color:#B9121B;
}
body {
295
color:#4C1B1B;
background-color:#FCFAE1;
}
</style>
<title>List and Datalist</title>
</head>
<body >
<article>
<header>
<h3>The List and Datalist</h3>
</header>
<section>
<datalist id=favoriteSites>
<option value=”http://www.smashingmagazine.com/” label=”Smashing”>
<option value=”http://www.sandlight.com/” label=”Sandlight”>
</datalist>
</section>
<section>
<form name=traveler>
<label>Enter one of your favorite sites:</label>
<br>
<input type=url list=favoriteSites name=getURL>
<br>
<input type=submit value=”Show your URL” onClick=”FormMaster.resolveForm()”>
21_977279-ch14.indd 295 10/28/10 10:14 PM

</form>
</section>
</article>
</body>
</html>
In looking at the script, you may be wondering what the label attribute is doing in the
<option> tag in the <datalist> container. There’s no label attribute in either the form
or input element (see Table 14.1 and Table 14.2). That’s because the label attribute is not
in the form or input elements, but in the <option> tag. Although that may seem obvious,
when you open the page, you see not only the URLs but also the label in the URL input
window. What’s happening is that the <input type=url> tag holds a reference to the data
list’s options through the list attribute in the input element’s markup.
At the time of testing, the data list shows up in Opera using either Windows 7 or Mac OS X.
In the top-left panel, you can see the selections available in the data list (along with a label for
each). Once the user makes a selection, it appears in the input window as shown in the
top-right panel. Finally, in the bottom panel, you can see that it’s passed to the JavaScript
function that displays it in an alert window. (Note that the Opera alert window also displays
the domain.)
The important point about this process is that users don’t have to type in URLs. Everyone who
296 has ever typed in a URL has made a typo at some point. By using the data list to help out, not
only is the suggested URL more likely to be selected, but it’s easier for the user.
Datalist elements on mobile devices and URL keyboards

Tests of the application on the Mini Opera browser on an iPhone revealed that the data list
did not appear. Further testing with the mobile version of the Safari browser showed that it
did not work with Safari yet either.
However, during these tests, a unique keyboard for the new url and email type of input
elements was revealed. The mobile Safari browser recognizes an input form typed as url and
email and when used it displays a keyboard that includes both a dot (.) and dot-com
(.com) key, plus some other keys commonly used with URLs and e-mail addresses. Figure
14-4 shows the Safari mobile (left) and Mini Opera (right) browsers side-by-side displaying
the data list program on the same iPhone. If you look carefully, you can see the difference.
The importance of a mobile browser recognizing that the input expects a URL or e-mail
address is that it considers the user. With the special keyboard, users don’t have to switch
between the numeric/symbol keyboard and the alphabetic one as much.
21_977279-ch14.indd 296 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 14-4: Special mobile device keyboard for URL form (left) and standard mobile keyboard (right). 297
RADIO BUTTONS AND CHECK BOXES: EASY-TO-SELECT INPUT ELEMENTS

If you’re using radio buttons and check boxes with external programs accessing databases or
doing some other kind of server-side operation, it’s very easy on the HTML5 side. Just use a
Submit button and everything gets sent to the server side for those programs to handle. (I
show you how to do that using a version of this example in Chapter 16.)
Because this next Web script bounces the input back to a <textarea> object on the page,
the entered data had to be checked using JavaScript with a little loop to first see whether the
checked attribute was true or false. If the item has been checked, it then adds the value
to a FormMaster property named this.countVal. (It’s like a variable, but in keeping with
DOM-like programming, it’s assigned to an object.) Once that’s finished, it sends only those
checked to the output. The following (rather long) Web script (RadioCheck.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) does that.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{
this.countVal=””;
21_977279-ch14.indd 297 10/28/10 10:14 PM

this.topCount=document.checkRadio.length-2;
for(var count=0;count < this.topCount;count++)
if(document.checkRadio.elements[count].checked)
{
this.countVal+=document.checkRadio.elements[count].value+”\n”;
}
document.checkRadio.outNow.value=this.countVal;
}
</script>
/* 735840,733119,BF5D39,352D1B,C0B787 */
body {
background-color:#C0B787;
color:#733119;
font-size:12px;
margin-left:20px;
}
h1 {
color:#733119;
}
h2 {
color:#BF5D39;
}
298 h3 {
color:#BF5D39;
}
#dataEntry {
display:table;
}
#lang {
display:table-cell;
width:200px;
}
#out {
display:table-cell;
width:300px;
}
aside {
display:table-cell;
width:250px;
}
</style>
<title>Click-2-Choose</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h1>E-Z Selections</h1>
21_977279-ch14.indd 298 10/28/10 10:14 PM

</header>
<div id=”dataEntry”>
<div id=”lang”>
<section>
<h2>Web Languages</h2>
<form name=checkRadio>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=html value=”HTML5” checked>
HTML5</label><br>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=css value=”CSS3”>
CSS3</label><br>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=js value=”JavaScript”>
JavaScript</label><br>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=php value=”PHP”>
PHP5</label><br>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=asp value=”ASP.NET”>
ASP.NET</label><br>
<label>
<input type=checkbox name=action value=”ActionScript 3.0”>
ActionScript 3.0</label>
</section>
</div> 299
<section>
<aside>
<h2>Specialization</h2>
<fieldset>
<legend> Web Focus </legend>
<label>
<input type=radio name=work value=”Graphic Design”>
Design </label><br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=work value=”Interface Design”>
Iterface Design </label><br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=work value=”Front End”>
Front End Development </label><br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=work value=”Back End”>
Back End Development </label><br>
</fieldset>
</aside>
</section>
</div>
<section>
<div id=”out”>
<fieldset>
<legend>Output Window</legend>
21_977279-ch14.indd 299 10/28/10 10:14 PM

<textarea name=outNow rows=10 cols=40 ></textarea>

</fieldset>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<div>
<p>
<input type=button name=getEm value=”Relay your selections”
onClick=”FormMaster.resolveForm()”>
</p>
</div>
</section>
</form>
</div>
</article>
</body>
</html>
Although that’s a bit long, most of it was formatting so that it looks halfway decent and it’s
easy for users. The <fieldset> tag was used to highlight a group of buttons and to encap-
sulate the output window. It’s a great tag to use when you want to group elements. The
<legend> tag allows you to place a label in the enclosing rectangle around the field set.
Figure 14-5 shows what you can expect to see when you load the page.
300
Figure 14-5: Check boxes and radio buttons.
21_977279-ch14.indd 300 10/28/10 10:14 PM

When you first run it, you see that the HTML5 has already been selected. That’s because the
checked attribute is added to the tag. It’s a Boolean, but you don’t have to assign it a true or
false. After the page loads, see what happens when you click it.
What you see in the output window is that all the values that were assigned to the selected
radio buttons and check boxes. In more practical implementations, that same data would be
passed to and stored in a database.
DATE PICKER
The last input attribute we have space to cover in this chapter is simple to implement but has
impressive results. The new date attribute for the input element is powerful and easy to
include in a form. Several new date and time attributes have been added to the input element,
but only the date attribute itself is shown. The following program (Pickers.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows you how to set it up and
use it to send information.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
{ 301
alert(document.calendar.dateNow.value);
}
</script>
<title>Date</title>
</head>
<body >
<form name=calendar>
<input name=dateNow type=”date” onChange=”FormMaster.resolveForm()”>
</form>
</body>
</html>
With just that little markup in the form container, you’re able to build a complete calendar.
You can use the onChange event handler to capture the date selected from the calendar.
Figure 14-6 shows the application in an Opera browser (the only one found to work so far
with this new input attribute) in a Windows 7 environment.
In this particular implementation, as soon as the user makes a selection, the alert window
opens and shows the selected date, as shown in Figure 14-7.
The purpose is to show how easy it is to pass the selected date value. Such data could be stored
in a database to make online reservations.
21_977279-ch14.indd 301 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Figure 14-6: A simple markup provides a calendar online.
302
Figure 14-7: Passing the date value to JavaScript.
The little window behind the alert window shows the selected date in a small window. (The
little window shows the selected date with no other required programming.) The importance
of this new HTML5 feature lies in the ease with which users can select a date. If you’ve ever
worked with a similar tool in making airline or hotel reservations online, you know how
valuable it is. The only problem at the time of this writing is that no other HTML5 browser
other than Opera includes it.
21_977279-ch14.indd 302 10/28/10 10:14 PM

TAKE THE WHEEL

The major takeaway from this chapter is how to use the DOM to access form information.
The basic format is:
document.form.element.value
You need to use JavaScript (at this stage) to access data that would generally be passed on to a
server-side program like PHP, ColdFusion, or ASP.NET. However, to simulate that, the
examples in this chapter have used a button input type to fire a JavaScript program that sends
the results to a <textarea> where you can see what would normally be sent to the back end
for processing. Here’s the challenge:
Devise an online store that sells a line of products (at least five) or delivers services
(again, at least five). Examples would be a computer store or a Web design service.
Design an interface where users enter their name, e-mail, URL, address, city, state, zip
code, and a username and password, with as little effort on their part as possible. To make
it bulletproof, test it with someone who’s never seen it before.
Users then select several products or services (again with as little effort on their part as
possible).
The selected offerings are then displayed in a <textarea> with their corresponding
individual prices along with appropriate tax.
The program also generates a shipping label. It will just be displayed in the 303
<textarea> — not printed out.
The more form elements and attributes that you can use that were not discussed in the
chapter, the better.
21_977279-ch14.indd 303 10/28/10 10:14 PM

21_977279-ch14.indd 304 10/28/10 10:14 PM
CHAPTER 15
SMASHING HTML5
15 EMBEDDING OBJECTS
AND STORING
INFORMATION
FOR YEARS, USERS have been able to do related to the new feature or through a URL that
some pretty remarkable things on the Web serves the new feature. HTML5 has a number of
thanks to different kinds of plug-ins loaded such objects, and one of the most interesting is
inside the browser. Generally speaking, two key the geolocation object. So, it’ll be the first to
plug-ins are installed with most browsers: Adobe examine before looking at how Java and Flash
Flash Player and Java. work with HTML5.
Some of the new HTML5 features work best in

concert with either special plug-ins directly
22_977279-ch15.indd 305 10/28/10 10:14 PM

GEOLOCATION
The geolocation object is part of the navigation object in the HTML5 DOM. It’s a
means of finding your location, more or less. In several tests, it successfully located the
ballpark of my location. The most important attributes of the geolocation object are the
latitude and longitude attributes. That’s because, with those values, you can load a map
of your general location.
Creating an HTML page that shows users their latitude and longitude is fine, but HTML5
browsers are also able to load a map into their Web sites using Google Maps. The URL for this
capability is:
“ http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll= “ + latitude + “, “ + longitude +

“&spn=0.054166,0.110378&z=13&output=embed”
The latitude and longitude variables contain coordinate values. So, the trick is to locate
the latitude and longitude values to insert where they’re needed.
FINDING LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

Getting these values requires pretty straight JavaScript from your browser — on your mobile
device or computer. Here’s the basic code:
306 navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(someFunction);
To filter out browsers that do not recognize the geolocation object, use a simple trap:
if (navigator.geolocation)
{
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(someFunction);
}
else
{
alert(“Geolocation not recognized”)
}
This tells users whether their browsers even recognize geolocation.
The function called to get the position information makes the call but is expected to include a
parameter that will store the actual information about location. Following the practice of
using objects and methods the call is made:
...
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(LocationMaster.lookUpPosition);
...
This, in turn, gets the method that returns the requested values:
22_977279-ch15.indd 306 10/28/10 10:14 PM

CHAPTER 15: EMBEDDING OBJECTS AND STORING INFORMATION
LocationMaster=new Object();
LocationMaster.lookUpPosition=function(position)
{
this.latNow=position.coords.latitude;
this.longNow=position.coords.longitude;
...
Note that the position parameter is like a variable that will store the latitude and longitude
values. It is not a property of the geolocation object — cords.latitude and cords.
longitude are the properties. (The name position could be any name we wanted —
Rumpelstiltskin would’ve worked, but position is more descriptive.)
Once the values are assigned to the parameter object, they become part of the Location-
Master object using the this keyword. The property names — latNow and longNow — store
the values like a variable. The only difference is that they’re part of an object.
GETTING THE MAP

The only thing that the HTML5 page working with JavaScript does is to get the coordinates.
Getting the map, then, is simply a matter of inserting those values into the map request. So, to
finish up the method, the program uses the following line:
document.getElementById(“mapHolder”).src = “http://maps.google.com/
maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=“ + this.latNow + “,” + this.longNow + “&spn=0.054166,0.11037
307
8&z=13&output=embed”;
You find a new method in the HTML5 DOM core: getElementById. In this case, the ID is
that of an iFrame element. Then the map is the source object — just like an image is loaded
through the source identification:
<img src=“myImage.jpg”>
The only difference is that the place where the map is loaded is specified by the iFrame ID
instead of by the page by default.
Placing the map on the Web page

Any other loading after the page has loaded can’t be slipped in just anywhere in the page. The
<iframe> can be a target apart from the main document. Using the <iframe> without any
of its attributes specified produces a relatively small viewing window. However, the idea is to
see how few tags and how little JavaScript code I can use to get the map displayed on the page.
Putting it all together in a simple page

I’ve tested all the major browsers on both Windows 7 and Macintosh OS X, and the following
(MiniGeoLoc.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5)
represents a simple starting point for a page that displays a map near the originating user.
22_977279-ch15.indd 307 10/28/10 10:14 PM

<!DOCTYPE html >

<html>
<head>
<style type=“text/css”>
/* BF7F6C,FFDDAE,B59D7B,40372B,E6C79C */
body {
color:#40372B;
background-color:#FFDDAE;
}
h3 {
color:#BF7F6C;
}
</style>
<script>
LocationMaster=new Object();
LocationMaster.lookUpPosition=function(position)
{
this.latNow=position.coords.latitude;
this.longNow=position.coords.longitude;
document.getElementById(“mapHolder”).src = “http://maps.google.com/
maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=“ + this.latNow + “,” + this.longNow + “&spn=0.054166,0.11037
8&z=13&output=embed”;
308 }
if (navigator.geolocation)
{
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(LocationMaster.lookUpPosition);
}
else
{
alert(“Try a different HTML5 browser. This one is not working with
geolocation.”);
}
</script>
<title>Minimum Map</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h3>Your Location</h3>
</header>
<section>
<iframe id=“mapHolder”> </iframe>
</section>
<section>
<p> This example of using geolocation and Google Maps is very simple. It has
been tested in the major browsers and mobile browsers. </p>
</section>
22_977279-ch15.indd 308 10/28/10 10:14 PM

</article>
</body>
</html>
When you test this Web page, try it first using the latest Firefox browser. Then try it out with
Google Chrome and Opera. With Safari, which recognizes the geolocation object, I was
unable to load the map into the iframe. Ironically, when tested on the mobile Safari browser
on an iPhone, it worked fine. (More about that in a second.) Figure 15-1 shows the program
on all browsers except Safari and Internet Explorer running on Windows 7.
309
Figure 15-1: Geolocation used to find longitude and latitude for Google Maps.
Figure 15-1 shows the Web page loaded with the map in Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. You can
drag the map around the iframe with the mouse and on Safari and Perfect browsers on an
iPhone, with your fingers. However, on the mobile browsers, the iframe and image were
extended by dragging downward.
22_977279-ch15.indd 309 10/28/10 10:14 PM

Adapting the page for mobile viewing

To make it more practical for mobile users, I made some program adjustments to change the
orientation of the map by changing the <iframe> to the following:
<section>
<iframe id=“mapHolder” width=“240” height=“320”> </iframe>
</section>
Now on a vertical orientation, the map was easier to read. Figure 15-2 shows the program on
an iPhone in the Perfect (left) and Safari (right) browsers. Near the bottom of the page,
directions provide mobile users with instructions for enlarging the image without dragging
the map out of the iframe.
310
Figure 15-2: The map in a mobile environment.
Figure 15-2 illustrates that by pulling the page outward and away from the map (left panel),
mobile users can adjust the map so that they can easily read it (right panel).
WORKING WITH THE GEOLOCATION PROPERTIES AND THE GOOGLE EARTH PLUG-IN
Experimenting with the geolocation object can be a lot of fun and very informative. The
following is a full list of its properties:
22_977279-ch15.indd 310 10/28/10 10:14 PM

latitude: Geographic coordinates in decimal degrees

longitude: Geographic coordinates in decimal degrees
altitude: Height in meters
accuracy: Accuracy levels of latitude and longitude coordinates in meters
altitudeaccuracy: Accuracy levels of altitude in meters
heading: Direction of travel of hosting device in degrees (most relevant to a mobile
device)
speed: Current ground speed of hosting device in meters/second (most relevant to a
mobile device)
If you have a mobile device, you can experiment with different headings and speed — with
someone else driving! All the geolocation properties can be sent to a form for display if
you want. If used with a mobile device, you’ll need either an open-socket server or frequent
browser/page refreshing.
A final aspect of geolocation is the use of the Google Earth plug-in. Figure 15-3 shows a
revised version of the basic Web page with the plug-in that can generate a 3-D view of the
mapped area.
You can update the sample Web page to the same dimensions by giving the <iframe> tag
the following attributes: width=500 height=400. Then click the Earth option at the top
of the map area. If your browser has the plug-in, it will show the 3-D view. Otherwise, it’ll 311
offer you a chance to download the plug-in and install it on your browser.
STORAGE IN HTML5
Other than cookies that store data on the user’s browser, when you think about storage,
typically a database and other programs like PHP and ASP.NET come to mind. However, the
HTML5 DOM now has a storage object that can be used in four contexts:
Session storage
Global storage
Local storage
Database storage
Not all browsers support all these storage contexts, but as browsers are continuously updated
to include HTML5, they include more contexts. At the time of this writing, Safari, Chrome,
and Opera supported all the contexts except global storage; Firefox supported them all except
database storage.
22_977279-ch15.indd 311 10/28/10 10:14 PM

312
Figure 15-3: A 3-D view of the map area with the Google Earth browser plug-in.
All storage is done in key/value pairs. The key is an identifier for a given value. (The key is
something like a variable with a label and an assigned value.) The next two sections explain
how to work with session and local storage. Global and database storage are less universally
implemented at this time, so I’m setting them aside.
SESSION STORAGE
Session storage allows users to store data for a single Web page as long as that Web page is
being viewed. As soon as the user leaves the page, all stored data is lost. For interactive games,
calculators, and any other kind of page that needs temporary storage while the page is viewed,
you can use session storage.
To get started, you’ll need to take look at the setters and getters of session storage. Here’s the
basic format for setting (storing) a value:
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sessionStorage.setItem(“keyName”, value );
The key must be a string, while the value can be any acceptable data type — number, text,
Boolean, object, function. The following represent some valid data assignments:
this.myKey=“secondKey”; //Key name assigned to property

function eek() //A function with a return value
{
return “eeeek!”;
}
jill=“My name is Jill”; //A variable
//Assign values to keys
sessionStorage.setItem(“firstKey”,88); //A number (numeric literal)
sessionStorage.setItem(this.myKey,true ); //Boolean
sessionStorage.setItem(“thirdKey”,eek() ); //Function
sessionStorage.setItem(“fourthKey”,”My name is Jack” ); //String literal
sessionStorage.setItem(“fifthKey”,jill ); //Variable
As you can see, you can use variables for both keys and their values. As long as the variable
(or property) is a string, it can be used as a key — you could even use a function that returns
a string as a key. A value can be a string or nonstring.
Once you have stored data, you need a way to retrieve it with a getter method. The following
shows the general format for getting the stored data — you have to know the key name for
every value you want to retrieve. 313
sessionStorage.getItem(“keyName”);
You can think of the key name in the same way as you do a variable name. If you know the
variable name, you can find its value. Key names work the same way.
This next program (SessionStore.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/

go/smashinghtml5) provides a simple illustration of how to work with session storage.
You’ll probably be reminded of working with variables because the values are extant only as
long as you don’t change the page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script type=“text/javascript”>
StorageMaster=new Object();
//Set values
StorageMaster.setPositions=function()
{
sessionStorage.setItem(“firstBase”,document.players.firstBase.value );
sessionStorage.setItem(“secondBase”,document.players.secondBase.value );
sessionStorage.setItem(“thirdBase”,document.players.thirdBase.value );
}
//Get values
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StorageMaster.getFirst=function()
{
playerName=sessionStorage.getItem(“firstBase”);
alert(playerName + “ is on first”);
}
StorageMaster.getSecond=function()
{
playerName=sessionStorage.getItem(“secondBase”);
alert(playerName +” is playing second”);
}
StorageMaster.getThird=function()
{
playerName=sessionStorage.getItem(“thirdBase”);
alert(playerName+ “ is assigned to third”);
}
</script>
body {
background-color:#EBD4B2;
color:#273A4B;
}
h2 {
background-color:#273A4B;
color:#D49756;
314 text-align:center;
}
h3 {
color:#323F14;
}
fieldset {
color:#790007
}
#playerTable {
display:table;
}
#getPlayer {
display:table-cell;
width:250px;
}
</style>
<meta http-equiv=“Content-Type” content=“text/html; charset=UTF-8”>
<title>Storage</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<hgroup>
<h2>Baseball Manager</h2>
<h3>Assign Players:</h3>
22_977279-ch15.indd 314 10/28/10 10:14 PM

</hgroup>
</header>
<section>
<form name=players>
<input type=text name=firstBase placeholder=“First base”>
First Base<br>
<input type=text name=secondBase placeholder=“Second base”>
Second Base<br>
<input type=text name=thirdBase placeholder=“Third base”>
Third Base<br>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.setPositions()” value=“Assign
Positions”>
</section>
<br>
<div ID=“playerTable”>
<section ID=“getPlayer”>
<fieldset>
<legend>Who’s Playing What?</legend>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.getFirst()” value=“Who’s on First?”>
<br>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.getSecond()” value=“Who’s on Second?”>
<br>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.getThird()” value=“Who’s on Third?”>
<br>
</fieldset>
</form> 315
</section>
</div>
</body>
</html>
When you first load the page, you’ll see a new HTML5 attribute in all the text input
windows — these are place holders. In the code, they look like this:
<input type=text name=thirdBase placeholder=“Third base”>
As soon as the user begins to type in a value, they immediately disappear. So, go ahead and
test it, filling in the three text windows, and then click the Assign Positions button. That sets
the values in the session storage.
To retrieve the stored data, just click any of the three buttons in the Who’s Playing What? box.
Figure 15-4 shows what you can expect to see.
If you try to get the stored data back before clicking the Assign Positions button, you’ll get a
null value in the alert window. If you leave the page and return, you’ll also get null values until
you’re reassigned the positions.
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Figure 15-4: Stored data returned in an alert window.

316
LOCAL STORAGE
The main difference between session storage and local storage is that local storage is persistent.
Users can leave the site, turn off their computers, come back the next day, and the data are still
there. Local storage works very much like cookies, but there are certain differences that are
important:
Cookies allow very little storage space; local storage allows far more.
Cookies are retransmitted automatically with every request to the server, and local
storage is not — which means local storage is far less work for the server and browser.
Local storage is transmitted on a request only.
You’ll find that localStorage and sessionStorage use the same getter/setter methods, so
once you know one, you know the other. However, you can set a value using localStorage,
turn off your computer, go play a game of football, come home, turn on the computer, and your
data is still stored on your computer. The following example (LocalStorage.html in this
chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows how to store, retrieve, and
clear localStorage data.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script type=“text/javascript”>
22_977279-ch15.indd 316 10/28/10 10:14 PM

StorageMaster=new Object();
//Set values
StorageMaster.setRegistration=function()
{
this.hobbyNow=““;
this.topCount=document.interest.elements.length;
for(var count=0;count < this.topCount;count++)
{
if(document.interest.elements[count].checked)
{
this.hobbyNow=document.interest.hobby[count-1].value;
}
}
localStorage.setItem(“uName”,document.interest.userName.value);
localStorage.setItem(“uHobby”,this.hobbyNow);
localStorage.setItem(“uState”,document.interest.resState.value);
}
//Get values
StorageMaster.getReg=function()
{
userProfile=“User Profile:\n”;
nameNow=localStorage.getItem(“uName”)+”\n”;
hobbyNow=localStorage.getItem(“uHobby”)+”\n”;
stateNow=localStorage.getItem(“uState”)+”\n”;
fileLength=localStorage.length + “ profile items”;
this.profile=userProfile+nameNow+hobbyNow+stateNow+fileLength; 317
document.getElementById(“profile”).innerHTML = this.profile;
}
StorageMaster.clearReg=function()
{
localStorage.clear();
alert(“Local storage cleared”);
}
</script>
/*962D3E,343642,979C9C,F2EBC7,348899 */
body {
background-color:#F2EBC7;
color:#962D3E;
}
h2 {
color:#979C9C;
}
fieldset {
color:#348899;
}
#hobbyTable {
display:table;
}
#getHobby {
22_977279-ch15.indd 317 10/28/10 10:14 PM

display:table-cell;
width:275px;
}
#profile {
display:table-cell;
background-color: #979C9C;
padding: 3px;
width:150px;
font-size:14px;
}
</style>
<title>Storage</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h2>Hobby Registration</h2>
</header>
<section>
<form name=“interest”>
<input name=userName placeholder=“Name please”>
Name<br>
<div id=“hobbyTable”>
318 <section id=“getHobby”>
<fieldset>
<legend>What’s Your Favorite Hobby?</legend>
<label>
<input type=radio name=hobby value=“travel”>
Travel</label>
<br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=hobby value=“reading”>
Reading</label>
<br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=hobby value=“theater”>
Theater</label>
<br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=hobby value=“ballet”>
Ballet</label>
<br>
<label>
<input type=radio name=hobby value=“monster trucks”>
Monster Truck Rallies</label>
<br>
</fieldset>
</section>
</div>
<input type=text name=resState placeholder=“Your state of residence”>
22_977279-ch15.indd 318 10/28/10 10:14 PM

State<br>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.setRegistration()” value=“Register”>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.getReg()” value=“Find Info”>
<input type=button onClick=“StorageMaster.clearReg()” value=“Clear Data”>
</form>
</section>
<br>
<pre id=“profile”></pre>
</body>
</html>
One of the features added to this example is the use of radio buttons to pass data to be stored.
Radio buttons are important because they make it easy for users to make a choice. It does take
a bit more work to get the correct data from radio buttons and check boxes, but it reflects the
Web truism that the more work the developer does, the less work users have to do.
Another feature of local storage is that it’s related to the browser. Each browser has its own
storage. So, if you store the data using a Safari browser, a Chrome browser cannot access that
data. Figure 15-5 shows the page loaded in a Chrome browser that has stored data using local
storage. However, if the same program in a different browser (Opera, for example) attempts to
retrieve the data, it shows it to be null.
319
Figure 15-5: Accessing local storage data.
You may also notice that when you first load the program, you don’t see the output window.
Instead, you see a gray line beneath the buttons. As soon as you click the Find Info button, the
information appears where the gray line was. A little CSS3 and HTML5 DOM work does the
trick. First, in the CSS3, set up the ID:
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#profile {
display:table-cell;
background-color: #979C9C;
padding: 3px;
width:150px;
font-size:14px;
}
Using the JavaScript line,
document.getElementById(“profile”).innerHTML = this.profile;
the information stored in this.profile was sent to the Web page where the following tag
was placed:
<pre id=“profile”></pre>
Prior to HTML5, dynamically sending data to a Web page without reloading the page was far
more complex. However, for certain programs like Adobe Flash CS5, it’s quite easy, as the next
section explains.
ADDING AND ADJUSTING OBJECTS

320
IN HTML5 WEB PAGES
When HTML was first released, it couldn’t do much, so developers began using programs like
Java and Flash, which provided the functionality that HTML could not. Much of that is no
longer true with HTML5, but even though HTML5 can do far more than earlier versions of
HTML, later versions of Flash and Java can still do far more.
Much can be said about the relative merits of Adobe Flash CS5 (the latest version of Flash as
of this writing) and HTML5, but for the foreseeable future, they’ll most likely be working
together, despite the fact that the Apple iPhone and iPad do not support the Flash Player.
Besides the fact that Flash can do a great deal, it has also provided consistency between
different platforms and browsers. So, even if different browser makers had different versions
of the HTML DOM and different ideas about what was the best CSS and JavaScript imple-
mentation, the Flash plug-in was consistent across all browsers and platforms. So, when
designers and developers used Flash, they were assured of a consistent presentation.
ADDING AN OBJECT
To give you an idea of how to embed an object in HTML5, I created a simple animation of a
shooting star in Flash CS5. Figure 15-6 shows the little animation in the design window.
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Figure 15-6: A Flash animation.
You can place the animation into a Web page in a number of different ways, but the easiest is
to publish it in Flash, which automatically generates a Web page with a reference to the binary
file in a .swf format. In browsers with Flash plug-ins, which is virtually all browsers — they
ship (or download) with the Flash plug-in included — the following code (ShootingStar.
html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) shows the object
in an HTML5 wrapper.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>ShootingStar</title>
321
<style type=“text/css” media=“screen”>
html, body { height:100%; background-color: #ffffff;}
body { margin:0; padding:0; overflow:hidden; }
#flashContent { width:100%; height:100%; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id=“flashContent”>
<object classid=“clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000”
width=“300” height=“200” id=“ShootingStar” align=“middle”>
<param name=“movie” value=“ShootingStar.swf” />
<param name=“quality” value=“high” />
<param name=“bgcolor” value=“#ffffff” />
<param name=“play” value=“true” />
<param name=“loop” value=“true” />
<param name=“wmode” value=“window” />
<param name=“scale” value=“showall” />
<param name=“menu” value=“true” />
<param name=“devicefont” value=“false” />
<param name=“salign” value=““ />
<param name=“allowScriptAccess” value=“sameDomain” />

<object type=“application/x-shockwave-flash” data=“ShootingStar.
22_977279-ch15.indd 321 10/28/10 10:14 PM

swf” width=“300” height=“200”>

<param name=“movie” value=“ShootingStar.swf” />
<param name=“quality” value=“high” />
<param name=“bgcolor” value=“#ffffff” />
<param name=“play” value=“true” />
<param name=“loop” value=“true” />
<param name=“wmode” value=“window” />
<param name=“scale” value=“showall” />
<param name=“menu” value=“true” />
<param name=“devicefont” value=“false” />
<param name=“salign” value=““ />
<param name=“allowScriptAccess” value=“sameDomain” />

<a href=“http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash”>
<img src=“http://www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_
buttons/get_flash_player.gif” alt=“Get Adobe Flash player” />
</a>

</object>

</object>
</div>
</body>
</html>
322
ADJUSTING AN OBJECT
The key HTML5 element is the <object> tag. Several parameters have been included, but all
of them can be changed to better suit your site. For example, the background color is set to
white (#ffffff), and by typing in a different background color, you can match it to your
site. Likewise, you can change the CSS and anything else you want.
Another program variously called Flex and Flash Builder also generates .swf files. Using a
very powerful language called ActionScript 3.0, developers are able to create programs with
the same depth and power as established programs like Java and C++. However, all the
HTML5 developer has to do is add the .swf file with his own code or code generated
automatically by Flash and Flash Builder.
TAKE THE WHEEL

I think you’re going to like this challenge. It involves both the new geolocation and
localStorage objects in HTML5. As you saw in this chapter, all you need to place a
Google Map on your Web page is the value of the location’s latitude and longitude. The
geolocation object generates those values for you in HTML5 in your current position. If
you have a mobile device, you can generate that information in several different locations.
Alternatively, you can go to an online mapping program, enter an address, and the mapping
program will do it for you. So here’s the challenge:
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Get the longitude and latitude for five different locations.

Enter the longitude and latitude values into a localStorage object.
Set up five buttons that will call a JavaScript program that will load five maps when
requested.
Basically, you’ll be making a Web page that loads maps of anyplace you choose. You shouldn’t
need any more JavaScript than the little that has been covered in this chapter.
323
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22_977279-ch15.indd 324 10/28/10 10:14 PM
CHAPTER 16
SMASHING HTML5
16 CATCHING
INTERACTIVE DATA
ONE OF THE most powerful and practical comments and those made by others? One way you
aspects of working with Web programming is the could do it would be to rewrite your Web site for
ability to store and retrieve data. HTML5 has some every entry and comment. But that would be so
capacity for such data storage and retrieval; awkward that not much blogging would take place.
however, as Chapter 15 showed, any data that is
stored is going to be related to an individual’s Blogs are set up using different server-side lan-
browser. As you saw in Chapter 15, for the guages, like PHP. Thord Daniel Hedengren’s
time-being, all the browsers aren’t exactly playing Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (Wiley)
nicely together in the sandbox when it comes to explains how to optimize using WordPress’s blog
data storage. Plus, the data are stored on the user’s software. Much of the discussion is how to use PHP
computer, and while that’s useful for some things, to tweak your blog. However, besides working with
such as recognizing a user’s interests when blogs, PHP can store and retrieve database data
returning to a Web site, every user has some kind from servers for anything from an online store to
of local storage. How do you store data (like a blog members of a football team. Unlike local storage,
comment) so that anyone with a browser can when data are stored using PHP, they can be
access it? retrieved using PHP by anyone anywhere. (Those
people don’t have to come by your house and use
To give you a sense of what this chapter introduces, your browser on your computer to retrieve data
consider something simple you can do on the Web: you’ve stored using HTML5 — and thank your
maintain and comment on a blog. Suppose you lucky stars for that.) Best of all, if you want to make
have a blog that discusses HTML5. Once or twice a a change, all you have to do is to type in the
week, you sit down and write a blog entry about information, and it’s sent to a database where the
HTML5. Now suppose you attract a big audience of changes are reflected in the Web page. In this
blog readers, and these readers comment on your chapter, I introduce you to one server-side language,
entries. How do you store and retrieve your PHP. The focus is on getting started and doing some
things with HTML5 that you can’t do without PHP.
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SERVER-SIDE LANGUAGES AND HTML5

Using HTML5, all of the processing is done on the client — your browser on your computer.
In a larger context, that’s called client-side processing. Your browser parses the HTML5 tags
and displays the Web page that it retrieves from a Web server. All the Web server does is serve
you the HTML, and your browser does the rest.
Server-side processing is different. The server — a PHP server, in this case — processes the
information it gets from different sources and sends HTML to your browser to show on your
computer. The big difference is that the server can interact with other kinds of data that your
browser cannot. For example, it can interact with a database that stores data that anyone can
send in via the Web.
Going back to our example of rewriting your Web page every time you want to make a blog entry
or comment, that’s pretty much what PHP does. Imagine that PHP is a little (overcaffeinated)
mouse that lives in the server and is really good at writing HTML5. Whenever you make a blog
entry or someone posts a comment, the mouse quickly rewrites the HTML5 so that your Web
page reflects the changes. That’s how PHP works. Figure 16-1 shows an illustration of the process.
Client-side processing
Client Server
Requests HTML5 Page
326 Returns HTML5
Server-side processing
Client Server
Storage
Requests PHP Page
Returns HTML5
Figure 16-1: Client- and server-side processing.
In Figure 16-1, the real work is between storage and the server. The information in storage has
to be configured in a way that it can be read by your browser. And that’s what PHP does — it
takes the stored information (sent in as a blog entry, for example) and sends it back as HTML5.
SETTING UP PHP ON YOUR COMPUTER (WHICH THINKS IT’S A SERVER)

You can access PHP in three ways:
Sign up for a hosting service.

Download and install a server and PHP on your computer.
If you have Mac OS X, it’s already on your computer — just configure it.
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CHAPTER 16: CATCHING INTERACTIVE DATA
Two of these methods involve setting up a server on your computer, and the third depends on
having a hosting service. The easiest thing to do is to sign up with a hosting service with PHP.
Then you just load your PHP files as you would a Web page. A hosting service that has been
tested extensively and is reasonably priced is at www.jtl.net. (The Linux minimum service
is all you need.)
If you want to install PHP on your computer do the following:
Windows only: Go to http://windows.php.net/download and download the

latest stable version of PHP5. (You’ll find “What version do I choose?” in the left column
to help you choose what you need for your system.) You’ll also need to install an Apache
server; you can get one free from www.apache.org.
Macintosh only: Go to http://foundationphp.com/tutorials/php_
leopard.php and follow the instructions for accessing the PHP on your system.
(Be very careful because you’re going to be using the built-in Terminal in your Mac
and you’ll be changing some key files.) This Web site shows you how to set up both
PHP and your built-in Apache server.
The easiest method for all users: If you want to download and install everything at once
(PHP, Apache server, and a MySQL database) for your Mac go to www.mamp.info/en/
index.html and for Windows go to www.wampserver.com/en. This is the easiest
way to set up an actual database on your computer.
Setting up PHP and Apache can be awkward, but once it’s set up, you don’t have to do it again. 327
If you use the all-in-one method (the last one listed above), you can get the MySQL server
with which you can set up a database on your computer.
TESTING PHP
Once you have your system set up, whether it’s on your computer or a hosting service, enter
the following program and test it:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<?php
print phpinfo();
?>
<title>Test PHP</title>
</head>
<body>
</body
</html>
Save the program as First.php and place the file in your Apache root folder. For example,
the following path is a typical one for Windows: c:/Program File/apache Groub/
apache/htdocs/php. The added folder, php, is where to put your First.php. On a Mac,
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using the built-in PHP, the path is Macintosh HD/Library/WebServer/Documents/

php/First.php.
Next, open a browser and type in http://localhost/php/First.php and press Enter

or Return. Unlike a regular Web page, you have to call the file from a browser. You can’t just
double-click it on the desktop — localhost is the server’s name that it runs on. Figure 16-2
shows what you’ll see if everything is installed correctly.
328
Figure 16-2: PHP test page.
Your installed version may be different, but that information tells you that PHP is installed on
your system and ready to go.
PHP BASICS
Before getting to something practical, the first few steps describe some basic syntaxes and
operations of PHP. PHP has many unique features, but it’s very much like JavaScript with a
slightly different set of symbols. The most important fundamentals begin with PHP “catching”
data sent from the client. In order to emphasize the difference between client-side and
server-side operations, the PHP code will be divorced from an HTML5 wrapper.
23_977279-ch16.indd 328 10/28/10 10:13 PM

When you enter data into an HTML5 form and click the Submit button, the form data are
sent to the server. In this first example, the name and e-mail will be sent from the client-side
HTML5 program to the server-side PHP program, and it’ll return HTML to the client. If you
have a remote sever — a hosting service — be sure to include the full URL of the PHP file.
This example assumes a localhost with both the HTML5 and PHP file in the same
directory, but that’s just to make it simpler. The following HTML5 page (SendData.html in
this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5) will send the data.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
SendMaster=new Object();
SendMaster.eLert=function()
{
alert(“Oops! Seems to be a little boo-boo in the e-mail format.”);
}
</script>
body {
font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color:#336600;
font-size:14px;
background-color:#FFCC33;
} 329
</style>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1” />
<title>Data Sender</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action=”formCatcher.php” method=”post”>
<fieldset>
<legend>Send Name and Email to PHP</legend>
<input size=20 name=”formName” placeholder=”Enter Name”>
<p/>
<input type=email size=32 NAME=”formEmail” placeholder=”Enter Name”
onInvalid=”SendMaster.eLert()” >
<p />
</fieldset>
<input type=”submit” name=”sender” value=”Send” >
</form>
</body>
</html>
The script includes both a text type and email type input form. (If no type of form is
assigned, it defaults to a text type.) An important detail to note is that the Submit button is
given a name (sender) that is used by the PHP script to determined whether the data from
this form has been sent.
23_977279-ch16.indd 329 10/28/10 10:13 PM

THE POST CATCHER

On the PHP side that catches the data, the $_POST array expects the name of the form. Two
variables are first declared — $name and $email. Variables in PHP have a dollar-sign ($)
prefix. However, before the PHP program attempts to assign the variable with data from the
$_POST array, a good practice is to check the isset() function that checks to see if the
Submit button (named sender) has sent the data. (The following code is in formCatcher.
php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5.)
<?php
//Catch HTML5 Data
$name;
$email;
if(isset($_POST[‘sender’]))
{
$name=$_POST[“formName”];
$email=$_POST[“formEmail”];
}
print “$name’s email address is $email”;
?>
Formatting the output using the print statement combines the variables and text in a single
set of double quotes. Within quotation marks, PHP still recognizes variables because the
dollar sign ($) prefix tells the interpreter that, even within quotes, the word is a variable. Most
330 other languages require concatenation when joining variables and literals. Figure 16-3 shows
both the form as filled and the output generated by PHP. (Note the localhost address in
the URL window for both the top and bottom panels.)
That’s a simple program, but it does show how PHP passes data from HTML5 to PHP. You’ll
also find a very interesting result in the e-mail window when you type in something that’s not
in e-mail format. You’ll find that it isn’t passed to the PHP module. Instead, it uses the new
HTML5 structure — the e-mail input format — and it acts like a data input validator that
doesn’t tell the user that she’s messed up.
DATA VALIDATION
In order to help users, the HTML5 portion of the application uses an error catcher routine
and informs users that they’ve made an error in the two parts of the Web page. First, the
e-mail form includes an error handler:
<input type=email size=32 NAME=”formEmail” placeholder=”Enter Name”

onInvalid=”SendMaster.eLert()”>
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331
Figure 16-3: Data entry and data output.
Second, the JavaScript routine in the <head> of the page triggers an alert message:
SendMaster=new Object();
SendMaster.eLert=function()
{
alert(“Oops! Seems to be a little boo-boo in the e-mail format.”);
}
You might want to note two important features about the coding:
It uses onInvalid instead of onError. The onError event handler is so commonly

used for any kind of error that you might assume it would work here as well, but only
onInvalid works in this case.
The error-catching routine is in the <input> e-mail instead of the <input> submit
tag. Because the error occurs on clicking the Submit button, it would seem that the error
handling would be in the Submit button tag, but it’s not. Figure 16-4 shows the error
message and the error that caused it — note the hand cursor on the sent (Submit) button.
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Figure 16-4: Invalid entry caught in the e-mail format.
The value attribute of the Submit button should be named anything but “Submit” as a good
interactive design practice. That’s why its value is set to Send. (No wants to submit.) Also, the
message isn’t one of those hysterical gasps like “FATAL ERROR! E-mail format illegal!” Some
users find such messages disconcerting. Also, they’re inaccurate — no one died or was
arrested. It was just a boo-boo.
332 BASIC PHP PROGRAM STRUCTURES

In this short introduction to PHP, you still can learn enough to make a practical application.
However, first, you’ll want to learn some of the basic structures of PHP. If you know JavaScript
or some other scripting or programming languages, the structures will be familiar. PHP does
have its idiosyncrasies, though, and many readers are unfamiliar with programming, so this
discussion is basic and focused.
TEMPORARY DATA STORAGE

All languages include a certain way of storing data temporarily in containers called variables,
constants, or some kind of object such as an array. Some languages are strongly typed and
others are weakly typed. Java, C#, and ActionScript 3.0 are all strongly typed. That means that
you have to decide on a certain data type and assign that data type to your storage. For
example, an ActionScript 3.0 variable is declared as:
var userName:String=”SoSueMe”;
That means you only can assign string data types to the variable, username. If you assign it a
number, Boolean, or nonstring function, it throws an error.
PHP is like JavaScript. If you assign the PHP variable,
$userName =”SoSueMe”;
23_977279-ch16.indd 332 10/28/10 10:13 PM

you can change it to any other data type or expressions such as,
$userName =55;
$userName =true;
$userName =(15 * 3);
Weakly typed languages have certain advantages and disadvantages, but they tend to be easier
to learn initially.
Variables
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, all variable labels begin with a dollar sign ($). They can
be placed in other strings and recognized regardless of data type. Try out the following
(variableInString.php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/
smashinghtml5):
<?php
$ram = “dynamic random access memory”;
$speed =”much GHz in”;
$money= 2;
$truism =”You can’t have too much $ram or too $speed a processor. (That will be
$money cents for the advice.)”;
print $truism;
?>
333
When you test that code, you’ll see the following output:
You can’t have too much dynamic random access memory or too much GHz in a processor.
(That will be 2 cents for the advice.)
In most other languages, you would have to use concatenation.
Constants
Constants are like variables in PHP except they do not change in value. They’re assigned
values in a much different way than variables are, and they’re case-sensitive. By convention
(and good practice), they’re in all caps (LIKE_THIS). The basic assignment format is:
define(“CONSTANT_NAME”, “value”);
Try the following little script (constants.php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5), to get an idea of how they work:
<?php
define(“FRED”, “Fred J. Jones “);
define(“MONEY”, 200);
define(“BUCKS”, “$”);
echo FRED , “ donated “ , BUCKS , MONEY , “ to charity.”;
?>
23_977279-ch16.indd 333 10/28/10 10:13 PM

The output for that little script is:
Fred J. Jones donated $200 to charity.
As you can see by putting the dollar sign character ($) into a constant, you can use it with
financial expressions and it won’t be mistaken for a variable. By the way, you can use either
echo or print (as well as other statements) in PHP to send output to the screen.
Arrays
An array is an object that holds several values. It’s like a container on a container ship where
different objects are stored — dolls from China, car parts from Detroit, computers from
Japan, and corn from Iowa. They work just as arrays do in JavaScript, but they’re configured a
bit differently. (See Chapter 12 for more on arrays.)
Arrays are named like variables except they’re assigned array objects. For setting up an array,
you can use one of two basic formats. The preferred format works like an associative array.
Instead of identifying an array element with a number, it’s given a key with a value — a
key-value pair. Here’s the general format for setting up an associative array:
$associate = array(“key1” => “value1”,”key2” => “value2”);
The other kind of array has a numeric key. Most typically, it’s set up by listing the array
334 elements in the following format:
$numeric=array(“el0”,”el1”,”el2”,3, true);
However, it can be set up using the key=>value method as well:
$assoNum = array(0 => “value1”,1 => “value2”,1 => “value2”);
The following little script (array.php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/

smashinghtml5), shows several different combinations you can see:
<?php
$associate = array(“key1” => “value1”,”key2” => “value2”,”keyEtc” => “valueEtc”);
$boxCar=array(“tools”,”oil drum”,”cow”,7, false, “computer parts”);
$mixedBag=array(1=>”first”,2=>”second”,”third”=>3,4=>4);
echo $associate[“key2”] . “<br>”;
echo $associate[“keyEtc”] . “<br>”;
echo $boxCar[5] . “<br>”;
echo $boxCar[0] . “<br>”;
echo $mixedBag[2],$mixedBag[“third”];
?>
23_977279-ch16.indd 334 10/28/10 10:13 PM

You’ll see the following output:
value2
valueEtc
computer parts
tools
second3
Arrays are important in PHP because database data are often loaded into an array for output.
Objects and properties

Objects in PHP are based on user classes — there’s no Object() object like there is in
JavaScript. Making a class is like creating an object with all the variables, arrays, constants,
and functions you like in one place. Here are the basics of creating a class, adding properties,
and adding methods in this example (PropMethod.php in this chapter’s folder at www.
wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5):
<?php
class PropMethod
{
private $propString=”I work well with HTML5”;
private $propNum=2044;
private $propBool=true;
public function showString()
335
{
echo $this->propString, “<br>”;
}
public function showNum()
{
echo $this->propNum, “<br>”;
}
public function showBool()
{
echo $this->propBool;
}
}
$testPM=new PropMethod();
echo $testPM->showString();
echo $testPM->showNum();
echo $testPM->showBool();
?>
The output for that little class is:
I work well with HTML5

2044
1
23_977279-ch16.indd 335 10/28/10 10:13 PM

Everything but the 1 was probably expected. Some languages will treat Booleans as either a
true/false or 1/0 pairs. So true + true = 2, and true * false = 0.
The $testPM object is the object, and it works just like every other object in other lan-
guages. In JavaScript, though, the object and property are separated by dots (.) while in PHP,
they’re separated by arrows (->). The following are equivalent:
myObject.myProp=20; //JavaScript
myObject->myProp=20; //PHP
You’ll find other differences, but the similarities are far more numerous between PHP and
JavaScript.
KEY PHP OPERATORS

Like all Web languages, PHP has operators, and a full listing of them can be found in the
official PHP manual at http://us.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.
php. Here, just a few that will be used in the program to make an email application, and some
others are unique in other ways. So while you’ll have to depend on the manual for all PHP
operators, the one examined in the next few sections will have you up and running.
Assignment
336 To assign a value to a variable or object, the equal sign (=) serves as the assignment operator.
Compound PHP operators assign the value of the current variable plus, minus, multiplied by,
or divided by the assigned value. The following example (assignment.php in this chapter’s
folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5), shows the key uses of assignment
operators:
<?php
$sampleNum=20;
$sampleString=”Hurricane”;
$sampleNum += 50;
$sampleString .= “ is coming.”;
echo $sampleNum,”<br>”;
$sampleNum *= 2;
$sampleNum /= 4;
echo $sampleString;
?>
Before you look at the outcome, see if you can predict what they’ll be:
70
140
35
Hurricane is coming.
23_977279-ch16.indd 336 10/28/10 10:13 PM

One of the unique operators in PHP is the use of the dot (.) for concatenation. A compound
operator joins two operators into one for easier coding, and the .= compound operator takes
the left value and joins it with the right value. Another way of looking at it is that it assigns its
current value and the value assigned to it to make a third value, which becomes the variable’s
new value.
Arithmetic
The arithmetic operators are fairly standard compared to other programming languages. The
main ones include
+ (addition)
– (subtraction and negation)
/ (division)
* (multiplication)
% (modulo)
About the only one that anyone has problems with is modulo (%). It refers to any remainders
of whole numbers after division. However, they can be handy. For example, the following little
program (modulo.php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5),
demonstrates how it can be used with a Boolean:
<?php
337
for ($count = 1; $count <= 12; $count++) {
$valid = $count % 2;
if($valid)
{
echo $count, “ is odd<br>”;
}
else
{
echo $count, “ is even<br>”;
}
}
?>
The program iterates through a series of numbers divided by 2. Even numbers divided by 2
return 0 and odd numbers return 1 — the values Booleans recognize as false and true,
respectively. The if() statement is looking for a true or false and will accept ones and
zeros as Booleans. When sending out alternating backgrounds in table data coming from a
database, the modulo operator is used to switch colors back and forth using the trick of
dividing record numbers by 2 and using the remainder (modulo) as a Boolean.
MAKING AN E-MAIL APPLICATION

After all the work done with forms and different types of input in HTML5, you’ll find that
with a little PHP you can make e-mail forms with which users can send queries. The first form
23_977279-ch16.indd 337 10/28/10 10:13 PM

will be very simple and provide users with a comment section they can use for your Web
page.
The basics of making an e-mail application center around the mail() function in PHP. The
mail() function expects three or four parameters. In the first e-mail application, only the
first three are used.
A SIMPLE E-MAIL APPLICATION

The first thing you want to do in an e-mail application is set up the HTML5 portion of your
HTML5-PHP pair to provide a clear entry for users. Using the validation checking built into
some of the input forms (onInvalid), you can prevent users from inadvertently sending an
e-mail, phone number, or URL or other form data that are incorrectly formatted. So, this first
HTML5 e-mailer will (again) use the e-mail input form and use the onInvalid event
handler. The following program (EZmailer.html in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.
com/go/smashinghtml5), should be fairly familiar.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
MailMaster=new Object();
MailMaster.eMess=function()
338 {
alert(“Hmmmm... It seems that the e-mail entry has something out of sort. . . .
Please take a look at it and see if you can fix it up.”)
}
</script>
/*DDDCC5,958976,611427,1D2326,6A6A61 */
body {
background-color:#DDDCC5;
color:#1D2326;
}
h2 {
color:#DDDCC5;
text-align:center;
font-family:”Arial Black”, Verdana, Arial;
}
h3 {
color:#611427;
}
fieldset {
color:#6A6A61;
}
</style>
23_977279-ch16.indd 338 10/28/10 10:13 PM


<title>Simple E-Mail</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<header>
<h2>Mailer</h2>
</header>
<section>
<header>
<h3>Fill in the form and send us your questions, ideas, and rants.</h3>
</header>
<form action=”mailer1.php” method=”post”>
<input name=userName>
Please enter your name.<br>
<input name=mailNow type=email onInvalid=”MailMaster.eMess()”>
Enter e-mail address to send reply.<br>
<input name=subject> What subject would you like to address?<br>
<fieldset>
<legend>Comments</legend>
<textarea name=talk cols=70 rows=15 ></textarea>
</fieldset>
<input type=submit name=sender value=”Send email”>
</form>
</section>
</article> 339
</body>
</html>
One of the key lines in the HTML5 script is the action in the form that sends the information
to PHP for processing:
<form action=”mailer1.php” method=”post”>
The form was not given a name because, for this application, we didn’t need one. However,
adding a name to the form is generally a good practice, and if it’s needed, it should be
available.
All the name attributes in the input elements are crucial. Each name in the input element tags
is passed to PHP as an array element in the $_POST array. The element is then passed to a
variable that is used in the e-mail that is sent to a recipient — typically, the Web site owner. In
this case, that’s you. Figure 16-5 shows the input page and the form data that will be sent to
the PHP program for server-side processing.
As soon as the user clicks the Send E-Mail button, he receives a notice:
Your e-mail has been sent to waz@wazooHome.net. Thank you for your interest in Wazoo
Web Site Design and Development.
To see how that happened, we’ll have to look at the PHP portion of the application.
23_977279-ch16.indd 339 10/28/10 10:13 PM

340
Figure 16-5: Data entry form to be sent as an e-mail.
PHP CATCH AND SEND

Next, a PHP program catches the data sent from the HTML5 and sends it to the intended
recipient, the business owner. First, take a look at the PHP code in mailer1.php (available
in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/smashinghtml5). Then, you can see how
the e-mail is sent.
<?php
$name;
$email;
$comments;
$subject;
$eBiz=”waz@wazooHome.net”;
{
$name=$_POST[“userName”];
$email=$_POST[“mailNow”];
$comments=$_POST[“talk”];
$subject=$_POST[“subject”];
23_977279-ch16.indd 340 10/28/10 10:13 PM

}
$comments .= “\r\r\r\nFrom-> $name : Send reply to: $email”;
mail($eBiz,$subject,$comments);
echo “Your e-mail has been sent to $eBiz. Thank you for your interest in Wazoo Web
Site Design and Development.”;
?>
In looking at the PHP code, you can see it doesn’t take much. First, the four chunks of data
from the HTML5 page are passed to four PHP variables:
$name
$email
$comments
$subject
Next, the $comments variable is concatenated with information about the sender’s name and
e-mail address. Then, using the mail() function, the program uses the following line to send
everything to the Web site owner:
mail($eBiz,$subject,$comments);
Finally, a simple message is sent to the user who sent the e-mail. Figure 16-6 shows the e-mail
received by Wazoo Web Site Design and Development.
341
Figure 16-6: E-mail generated by PHP code and HTML5.
By having an automatic e-mail page on your site, you (or your clients) can generate far more
business. The key to using some kind of Web-generated e-mail is to make it easy for the user
to send an e-mail and generate more business for the site.
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ADDING A HEADER AND AUTO-REPLY IN PHP

As was hinted in the fictitious e-mail used in the example, it would be nice to have an
automatic e-mail reply to users when they send an e-mail. Again, using the mail() function
in PHP, all you have to do is add a second mailer. Using the $name variable and $email, you
can personalize a reply. Additionally, you can add a header to the e-mail that is sent to the
user and to the Web site owner.
First, the mail() function requires a fourth parameter. Breaking down the four parameters,
you can lay out the following:
Recipient (e-mail address)

Subject (what is placed in the subject line)
Content (the body of the message)
Header (the From and Reply To addresses)
In the initial example, the From and Reply To address was concatenated to the content.
However, using the header parameter, you can let the header take care of it.
This next listing (mailer2.php in this chapter’s folder at www.wiley.com/go/

smashinghtml5), shows the same program with the added header and the auto-reply.
Very little has been added, and much has been enhanced.
342
<?php
$name;
$email;
$comments;
$subject;
$eBiz=”waz@wazoo.net”;
{
$name=$_POST[“userName”];
$email=$_POST[“mailNow”];
$comments=$_POST[“talk”];
$subject=$_POST[“subject”];
}
$headers = “From-> $name :\r\n Send reply to: $email”;
$reply=”Dear $name , \r\n Thank you for sending us your comments. We at Wazoo Web
Site Design and Development believe that customer care is an essential of doing
business—not an optional service.\r\n”;
$reply .= “As soon as we can review your comments, one of our associates will get
back to you.”;
$reply .=”\r\n Sincerely, Phillip Pickle,\r\n President, WWDD”;
mail($email,”Thank you for your thoughts”,$reply);
mail($eBiz,$subject,$comments,$headers);
echo “Your e-mail has been sent to $eBiz. Thank you for your interest in Wazoo Web
Site Design and Development.”;
?>
23_977279-ch16.indd 342 10/28/10 10:13 PM

The $headers variable adds the header material that had been concatenated to the content. A
new variable, $reply, provides the text for automatically replying to the sender. In this way,
users get immediate feedback. Figure 16-7 shows what the auto-reply looks like to the recipient.
Figure 16-7: Auto-reply e-mail.
The user sees that his name is in the header, and the subject line is based on what the user just
343
sent. Even though the user probably realizes that it’s an auto-generated reply, he likes the fact
that a Web development company can do that for his business.
The addition of the header makes it easier to add a header where you want it. In the first
example, the header was really a footer at the end of the message. This time, it’s where it
belongs at the top of the e-mail, as shown in Figure 16-8.
Figure 16-8: A header added to an e-mail.
23_977279-ch16.indd 343 10/28/10 10:13 PM

As you can see in Figure 16-8, the header is at the top of the e-mail. Also, in all the examples,
PHP did an excellent job of keeping the format that was originally entered in the comment
box in the HTML5 input form.
TAKE THE WHEEL

One of the points made repeatedly throughout the book is to make your page easy to use. The
e-mail form used in this chapter was very simple, but what about some information that the
Web site owner wanted to know? A comment form is open-ended and is a valuable tool to
communicate with your users. However, sometimes you or your client needs very specific
information. This challenge calls for a few changes in the e-mail program to include the
following:
Four radio buttons requesting information about user’s type of business

Four check boxes requesting information about the services the user was interested in
using
That may not look like much of a challenge, but if you can make data entry easy for users and
access that information in PHP, then you have some very powerful tools at your beck and call.
344
23_977279-ch16.indd 344 10/28/10 10:13 PM

Index
SYMBOLS AND objects in Web pages, 320 applying CSS3 pseudo-classes,

style to text with CSS3 160–162
NUMERICS embedded style sheets, 53–54 Arabic language attribute value, 34
+ (addition operator), 337
external style sheets, 55–58 arcs, drawing, 276–279
<> (arrow brackets), 8–9
inline style, 58–59 arithmetic operators, 337
/ (division operator), 337
styling HTML5 elements arrays
. (dot), 60
with CSS3 properties, overview, 248–249
“” (double quotes), 34, 35
52–53 PHP, 334–335
% (modulo operator), 337
styles to drawings, 262–264 $_POST, 330
* (multiplication operator), 337
transparency to color, 74–76 arrow brackets (<>), 8–9
# (pound sign), 62
addition (+) operator, 337 assigning
; (semicolon), 40
adjusting colors using percentages, 67–69
– (subtraction and negation op-
GIF file size, 185–186 icons to rel attribute, 131–132
erator), 337
image file size with graphic values to preload attribute,
| (vertical bar), 40
applications, 182 202–203
3GP video format, 217, 221–222
JPEG file size, 183–185 assignment operators, 336–337
objects in Web pages, 321 attributes
A PNG file size, 185–186 accept-charset, 286–287
<a> tag links. see links SVG file size, 186–187 action, 287
absolute reference, 104 Web pages for mobile viewing, align, 189–191
accept-charset attribute, 310 autocomplete, 288
286–287 Adobe Browserlab, 20 autoplay, 200, 228
action attribute, 287 Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, 20 colspan, 120–122
adding Adobe Illustrator, 194–196 controls, 228–229
auto-replies in PHP, 342–344 Adobe Media Encoder CS5, defined, 33
borders to tables with CSS3, 221–222 enctype, 286–287
114–117 alert() function, 235 height, 229
drop shadows, 265–267 alert windows, displaying choices href, 133
forms in, 295–296 hreflang, 133
accept-charset attribute, align attribute, 189–191 lang, 34–35
286–287 alternate style sheets, 128–131 link, 133
action attribute, 287 anchors (page), 137–140 list, 294
autocomplete, 288 Apple loop, 227–228
DOM, 290–292 iSight webcams, 223 media, 133
name attribute, 288–290 QuickTime Player, 225 name, 288–290
overview, 284–285 Apple Safari. see also video novalidate, 286–287
headers in PHP, 342–344 support for audio, 203 poster, 226–227
HTML5 structure, 49–52 using to interpret HTML5, 22–23 preload, 202–203, 227
metadata to Web pages, 87–88
24_977279-bindex.indd 345 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
attributes (continued) bit, 72 C

rel <body> tag, 32–33, 86 Cabarga, Leslie (author)
assigning icons to, 131–132 book, organization of, 2–3 Designer’s Guide to Color
prefetching, 133 Boolean, 245 Combinations, The, 78
values for, 134 borders, adding to tables with camcorders, 223–224
rowspan, 120–122 CSS3, 114–117 Camtasia software, 225
sizes, 133 <br> tag, 45–46 <canvas> tag
src, 44, 226 Browserlab (Adobe), 20 adding styles, 262–264
target, 140–141, 290 browsers creating drawings
title, 133 Apple Safari arcs, 276–279
type, 133, 204–205 support for audio, 203 circles, 279–281
width, 229 using to interpret HTML5, curves, 275–276
audio. see also video 22–23 gradients, 279–281
Apple Safari support, 203 audio support, 203–204 lines, 270–275
autoplay attribute, 200 compatibility with video movement, 270–275
browser support for, 203–204 Adobe Media Encoder CS5, overview, 258–260, 269–270
controls, 200–202 221–222 grid, 256–257
converting files, 208 overview, 218–219 images
creating files WebM Miro Video Convert- adding drop shadows,
Macintosh OS X Sound er, 219–220 265–267
Studio, 208–209 displaying icons with, 132 filters, 267–269
overview, 206 Google Chrome loading, 264–265
Windows 7 Sound Recorder, browser audio controls, implementation, 256
206–207 201–202 overview, 253–256
loop, 203 support for audio, 203 practice examples, 281
346 overview, 199–200 using to interpret HTML5, removing drawings, 262–264
practice examples, 214 19–21 scripts, 89–90
preload attribute, 202–203 Microsoft Internet Explorer setting up drawings, 257–258
sound effects grayscale on, 188 transparency, 74
integrating into Web pages, support for audio, 203 working with multiple draw-
211–213 using to interpret HTML5, 24 ings, 260–262
overview, 209 Mozilla Firefox <caption> tag, 113–114
transitions sounds, 209–211 support for audio, 203 captions, organizing, 100–103
<source> tag, 204 using to interpret HTML5, Cartesian coordinates, 256–257
<audio> tag. see audio 18–19 cells (table), 120
author relations, 135–137 Opera <center> tag, 16–17
autocomplete attribute, 288 support for audio, 203 changing
autoplay attribute, 200, 228 using to interpret HTML5, GIF file size, 185–186
auto-replies, adding in PHP, 21–22 image file size with graphic
342–344 overview, 17 applications, 182
practice examples, 25–26 JPEG file size, 183–185
previewing different displays, objects in Web pages, 321
24–25 PNG file size, 185–186
B using style sheets with
background colors, data clarifica- SVG file size, 186–187
different, 130 Web pages for mobile viewing,
tion with, 117–119
browsing contexts 310
bandwidth, saving, 185
in computer browsers, 141–142 check boxes, 297–301
base color, creating color schemes
in mobile browsers, 142–143 Chinese language attribute
from, 76
byte, 72 value, 34
<base> tag, 86–87
24_977279-bindex.indd 346 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
choosing consistency (navigation) CSS3

Apple Safari, 22–23 applying CSS3 pseudo-classes, adding borders to tables with,
Google Chrome, 19–21 160–162 114–117
microphones in Windows 7 HTML5 mechanics of vertical adding style to text with
Sound Recorder, 206 navigation, 162–165 embedded style sheets, 53–54
Microsoft Internet Explorer, 24 overview, 159–160 external style sheets, 55–58
Mozilla Firefox, 18–19 using graphic icons in naviga- inline style, 58–59
Opera, 21–22 tion, 165–166 styling HTML5 elements
overview, 17 vertical and horizontal naviga- with CSS3 properties,
Chrome (Google) tion, 160 52–53
browser audio controls, constants (PHP), 333–334 applying pseudo-classes,
201–202 controls (audio), 200–202 160–162
support for audio, 203 controls attribute, 228–229 creating
using to interpret HTML5, converting files, 208–209 classes, 59–61
19–21 creating IDs, 62–63
circles, drawing, 279–281 audio files relationship with HTML5, 31
classes (CSS3), 59–61 Macintosh OS X Sound table properties for HTML5,
code, parsing, 28 Studio, 208–209 110–112
codec parameter, of type overview, 206 curves, drawing, 275–276
attribute, 205–206 Windows 7 Sound Recorder,
color 206–207
background, data clarification canvas drawings, 258–260
with, 117–119 color schemes, 74–78
D
data
“Web safe,” 177 complex drawings with canvas
clarification with background
color values arcs, 276–279
colors, 117–119 347
adding transparency to color, circles, 279–281
types of, 245–246
74–76 curves, 275–276
validation in PHP, 330–332
creating color schemes, 74–78 gradients, 279–281
data (interactive)
integrating color palettes with lines, 270–275
e-mail applications
Web pages, 78–81 movement, 270–275
adding headers and auto-
practice examples, 81 overview, 269–270
reply, 342–344
RGB color consistency in navigation
creating, 337–340
hexadecimal settings, 71–74 applying CSS3 pseudo-
PHP catch and send, 340–341
names, 66–67 classes, 160–162
overview, 325
overview, 66 HTML5 mechanics of verti-
PHP
RGB and HSL percentages, cal navigation, 162–165
data validation, 330–332
67–69 overview, 159–160
overview, 328–330
RGB decimal integer settings, using graphic icons in
$_POST array, 330
70–71 navigation, 165–166
PHP program structures
colspan attribute, 120–122 vertical and horizontal
arrays, 334–335
<comment> tag navigation, 160
constants, 333–334
role of, 35–37 CSS3 classes, 59–61
objects, 335–336
when to use, 38 CSS3 IDs, 62–63
operators, 336–337
compatibility (browser) HTML5 with tags, 8–9
properties, 335–336
Adobe Media Encoder CS5, objects, 250–251
temporary data storage,
221–222 transition sounds, 209–211
332–333
overview, 218–219 Web pages, 216–218, 307–309
variables, 333
WebM Miro Video Converter,
practice examples, 344
219–220
24_977279-bindex.indd 347 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
data (interactive) (continued) removing, 262–264 finding, 181

server-side languages setting up for, 257–258 grayscale on Internet Explorer,
overview, 326 working with multiple, 260–262 188
setting up PHP, 326–327 Dreamweaver CS5 (Adobe), 20 overview, 179–181
testing PHP, 327–328 drop shadows, 265–267 files
<datalist> element drop-down menus, in global navi- audio, creating
on mobile devices and URL gation, 153–156 Macintosh OS X Sound
keyboards, 296–297 dynamic SVG files, 194–196 Studio, 208–209
overview, 9 overview, 206
datalists, 294 Windows 7 Sound Recorder,
date picker, 301–302 206–207
decimal integer settings (RGB),
E converting, 208–209
elements
70–71 external, 234–235
span, 54
density (pixel), 58 fixing Windows default exten-
datalist, 9, 296–297
designer navigation, 148–149 sion settings, 29
defined, 33
Designer’s Guide to Color Combi- HTML5 and related, 28
DOM references, 242–244
nations, The (Cabarga), 78 organizing
footer, 94
designing in sections, 91–94 absolute reference, 104
handling, 237–239
Designing Interfaces (Tidwell), 148 image reorganization and
iframe, 143–146
detecting events, 236–237 reference, 103–104
link, 128
discontinued tags, 15–17 relative reference, 104–106
new HTML5, 9–11
displaying for Web, 31
styling with CSS3 properties,
choices in alert windows, filters, 267–269
52–53
295–296 finding
tables, 113
icons with browsers, 132 file size, 181
348 e-mail applications
displays, previewing, 24–25 latitude, 306–307
adding headers and auto-
<div> tag, 94–98 longitude, 306–307
replies, 342–344
division (/) operator, 337 Firefox (Mozilla)
overview, 337–340
divisions, organizing, 94–98 support for audio, 203
PHP catch and send, 340–341
document type declaration, 44 using to interpret HTML5,
embedded style sheets, 53–54
DOM (Document Object Model) 18–19
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (author)
browser effects, 251–252 fixing
“Self-Reliance,” 159
form as part of, 290–292 TextEdit on Macintosh, 30
enctype attribute, 286–287
how it works with JavaScript, Windows default file extension
event handlers, 236
240–242 settings, 29
events, detecting, 236–237
HTML5 elements with, 242–244 FlashKit, 209
external files, JavaScript in,
overview, 239–240 Flip Mino HD camcorder, 224
234–235
relationship with sections, 94 footer elements, 94
external style sheets, 55–57
dot (.), 60 <form> tag, 242–244
double quotes (“”), 34, 35 formats (image), 176
downloading sound effects, 211 formatting grouping, 99–100
drawings (canvas) F forms
adding styles to, 262–264 <figcaption> tag, 100–103 adding
creating <figure> tag, 100–103 accept-charset attribute,
arcs, 276–279 figures, organizing, 100–103 286–287
circles, 279–281 file size action attribute, 287
curves, 275–276 changing autocomplete, 288
gradients, 279–281 with graphic applications, DOM, 290–292
lines, 270–275 182 enctype attribute, 286–287
movement, 270–275 JPEG, 183–185 name attribute, 288–290
overview, 258–260, 269–270 SVG size, 186–187
24_977279-bindex.indd 348 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
novalidate attribute, graphics, linking to, 166–167 parsing code

286–287 Graphics Information Format fixing TextEdit on Macintosh,
overview, 284–285 (GIF), 177, 185–186 30
attributes, 286–292 grayscale on Internet Explorer, 188 fixing Windows default file
input types grid, 256–257 extension settings, 29
check boxes, 297–301 grouping without formatting, how files work with Web, 31
datalists, 294, 296–297 99–100 HTML5 and related files, 28
date picker, 301–302 overview, 28
displaying choices in alert practice examples, 40–41
windows, 295–296 styling elements with CSS3
list attribute, 294
H properties, 52–53
H.264 video format, 217
overview, 293–294 using tags from HTML4, 11–15
handling elements, 237–239
radio buttons, 297–301 hue-saturation-light (HSL) model,
<head> tag, 32, 86
URL type, 294 67–69
headers, adding in PHP, 342–344
overview, 283 HyperText Markup Language. see
Hebrew language attribute value,
practice examples, 303 HTML (HyperText Markup
34
functions, 235, 245 Language); HTML5
Hedengren, Thord Daniel (author)
Smashing WordPress: Beyond
the Blog, 325
G height attribute, 229 I
geolocation hexadecimal settings, 71–74 icons
adapting pages for mobile view- <hgroup> tag, 50–52 displaying with browsers, 132
ing, 310 hierarchical link types, 137 graphic, 165–166
finding latitude and longitude, Hindi language attribute value, 34 link, 131–132
306–307 horizontal navigation, 160 thumbnail, 167–169 349
getting maps, 307 <hr> tag, 99–100 identifying parts of tags, 33–34
Google Earth plug-in, 310–311 href attribute, 133 IDs
overview, 306 hreflang attribute, 133 CSS3, 62–63
placing maps on Web pages, 307 HSL and RGB percentages, 67–69 page, 137–140
practice examples, 321–322 HTML (HyperText Markup Lan- iframe element, 143–146
properties, 310–311 guage), history of, 1 iframes
putting pages together, 307–309 <html> tag, 86 practice examples, 171
geolocation object. HTML4, using continued tags single-page Web sites with
see geolocation from, 11–15 linking to graphics, 166–167
German language attribute value, 34 HTML5 on mobile devices, 169–170
GIF (Graphics Information For- adding structure, 49–52 overview, 166
mat), 177, 185–186 choosing browsers to interpret thumbnail icons, 167–169
global navigation Apple Safari, 22–23 Illustrator (Adobe), 194–196
drop-down menus, 153–156 Google Chrome, 19–21 images
overview, 149–150 Microsoft Internet Explorer, 24 application for dynamic SVG
using lists in, 150–153 Mozilla Firefox, 18–19 files from Adobe Illustrator
Google Chrome Opera, 21–22 CS5 files, 194–196
browser audio controls, 201–202 overview, 17 in canvas and shadows
support for audio, 203 previewing displays, 24–25 adding drop shadows,
using to interpret HTML5, 19–21 creating with tags, 8–9 265–267
Google Earth plug-in, 310–311 discontinued tags, 15–17 filters, 267–269
gradients, drawing, 279–281 elements, 9–11 loading images, 264–265
graphic applications, modifying nesting tags, 38–40 creating color schemes from,
image file size with, 182 overview, 7, 27 76–77
graphic icons, using in navigation,
165–166
24_977279-bindex.indd 349 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
images (continued) functions, 235 inserting in Web pages

file size handling with elements, 237–239 detecting events, 236–237
bandwidth, 185 overview, 234 event handlers, 236
changing GIF size, 185–186 integrating sound effects into Web external files, 234–235
changing JPEG size, 183–185 pages, 211–213 functions, 235
changing PNG size, 185–186 interactive data handling with elements,
changing SVG sizes, 186–187 e-mail applications 237–239
grayscale on Internet adding headers and auto- overview, 234
Explorer, 188 reply, 342–344 overview, 233
modifying, 182 creating, 337–340 practice examples, 170–171, 252
file sizes, 179–181 PHP catch and send, 340–341 storing temporary values
flexible size with JavaScript, overview, 325 arrays, 248–249
191–194 PHP creating objects, 250–251
formats, 176 data validation, 330–332 DOM and browser objects,
GIF (Graphic Information overview, 328–330 251–252
Format), 177 $_POST array, 330 objects, 249–250
JPEG (Joint Photographic PHP program structures overview, 244
Experts Group), 177 arrays, 334–335 types of data, 245–246
overview, 175, 176 constants, 333–334 variables, 244–245, 246–247
pixels, 176 objects, 335–336 JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
placing with the align operators, 336–337 Group), 177, 183–185
attribute, 189–191 properties, 335–336
PNG (Portable Network temporary data storage,
Graphics), 177–178 332–333
practice examples, 196–197 variables, 333
K
350 Kodak Pocket Video camcorder,
preserving layers in Web practice examples, 344
224
graphics, 178–179 server-side languages
Kuler, 76
reorganizing and referencing, overview, 326
103–04 setting up PHP, 326–327
SVG (Scalable Vector testing PHP, 327–328
Graphics), 176–177 interface design, 148 L
<img> tag, 44 Internet Explorer (Microsoft) lang attribute, 34–35
information design, 148 grayscale on, 188 languages (server-side)
inline frames support for audio, 203 overview, 326
nesting Web pages, 144–146 using to interpret HTML5, 24 setting up PHP, 326–327
overview, 143–144 iSight webcams, 223 testing PHP, 327–328
inline style, 58–59 latitude, finding, 306–307
input types (forms) layers, preserving in Web graphics,
check boxes, 297–301 178–179
datalists, 294, 296–297
J
lines, drawing, 270–275
Japanese language attribute value, 34
date picker, 301–302 link element, 128
JavaScript
displaying choices in alert linking to graphics, 166–167
calling linked pages with,
windows, 295–296 links
156–158
list attribute, 294 inline frames
DOM (Document Object
overview, 293–294 nesting Web pages, 144–146
Model)
radio buttons, 297–301 overview, 143–144
how it works, 240–242
URL type, 294 link element and attributes
HTML5 elements, 242–244
inserting JavaScript into Web pages alternate style sheets,
overview, 239–240
detecting events, 236–237 128–131
flexibility of image size with,
event handlers, 236 link attributes, 133
191–194
external files, 234–235 link icons, 131–132
24_977279-bindex.indd 350 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
overview, 128 metadata, adding to Web pages, overview, 159–160

prefetching, 133 87–88 using graphic icons, 165–166
overview, 127 Microsoft Internet Explorer vertical and horizontal navi-
page links grayscale on, 188 gation, 160
author relations, 135–137 support for audio, 203 overview, 147
browsing contexts in brows- using to interpret HTML5, 24 practice examples, 170–171
ers, 141–142 Microsoft Movie Maker, 223 single-page Web sites with
browsing contexts in mobile Miro Video Converter, 219–220 iframes
browsers, 142–143 mobile browser, browsing contexts iframes on mobile devices,
hierarchical and sequential in, 142–143 169–170
links types, 137 mobile devices linking to graphics, 166–167
overview, 134 adapting Web pages for, 310 overview, 166
page anchors and IDs, datalist elements on, 296–297 thumbnail icons, 167–169
137–140 using iframes on, 169–170 using JavaScript to call linked
page IDs, 137–140 modifying pages, 156–158
rel attribute, 134 GIF file size, 185–186 Web navigation concepts
sequential links types, 137 image file size with graphic ap- designer navigation, 148–149
targets, 140–141 plications, 182 global navigation, 149–156
practice examples, 146 JPEG file size, 183–185 overview, 148
Linux, supported by Mozilla objects in Web pages, 321 user navigation, 148–149
Firefox, 18 PNG file size, 185–186 code, 40
list attribute, 294 SVG file size, 186–187 negation (–) operator, 337
lists Web pages for mobile viewing, nesting tags, 38–40
organizing, 94–98 310 nesting Web pages, 144–146
using in global navigation, modulo (%) operator, 337 Netscape Navigator. see Mozilla
150–153 MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), Firefox 351
loading images into canvas, 148–149 novalidate attribute, 286–287
264–265 Mosaic. see Mozilla Firefox number, 245
local storage, 316–320 Movie Maker (Microsoft), 223
longitude, finding, 306–307 Mozilla Firefox
loop attribute, 227–228 support for audio, 203
looping audio, 203 using to interpret HTML5,
O
Object-Oriented Programming
18–19
(OOP), 251
multiplication (*) operator, 337
objects
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
M 148–149
adding in Web pages, 320
Mac OS X, finding file size in, 181 adjusting in Web pages, 321
Muybridge, Eadweard (film
Macintosh creating, 250–251
maker), 106–107
fixing TextEdit on, 30 defined, 245
installing PHP, 327 geolocation
Macintosh OS X Sound Studio, adapting pages for mobile
208–209 N viewing, 310
maps name attribute, 288–290 finding latitude and longi-
getting, 307 names for colors, 66–67 tude, 306–307
placing on Web pages, 307 navigation strategies getting maps, 307
media attribute, 133 creating consistency Google Earth plug-in,
Media Encoder CS5 (Adobe), applying CSS3 pseudo- 310–311
221–222 classes, 160–162 overview, 306
menus (drop-down), in global HTML5 mechanics of verti- placing maps on Web pages,
navigation, 153–156 cal navigation, 162–165 307
<meta> tag, 44, 86, 87–88 practice examples, 321–322
24_977279-bindex.indd 351 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
objects, geolocation page anchors, 137–140 nesting, 144–146

(continued) rel attribute, 134 organizing
properties, 310–311 sequential link types, 137 designing in sections, 91–94
putting pages together, targets, 140–141 figures and captions, 100–103
307–309 pages (Web) files, 103–106
overview, 249–250 adapting for mobile viewing, 310 grouping without fracturing,
PHP, 335–336 adding 99–100
OGG video format, 217 metadata to, 87–88 overview, 45–47
OOP (Object-Oriented Program- objects, 320 paragraphs, divisions, and
ming), 251 adding style to text with CSS3 lists, 94–98
opacity, adding to color, 74–76 embedded style sheets, 53–54 practice examples, 106–107
Opera external style sheets, 55–58 top of HTML5 document,
support for audio, 203 inline style, 58–59 86–90
using to interpret HTML5, styling HTML5 elements overview, 43
21–22 with CSS3 properties, pixel density, 58
operators (PHP) 52–53 placing maps on, 307
arithmetic, 337 adjusting objects, 321 structure of, 47–49
assignment, 336–337 anchors, 137–140 palette (color), integrating with
organizing calling with JavaScript, 156–158 Web pages, 78–81
captions, 100–103 creating paragraphs, organizing, 94–98
Web pages CSS3 classes, 59–61 parsing code, 28
captions, 100–103 CSS3 IDs, 62–63 Photo Booth application, 223
designing in sections, 91–94 overview, 216–218, 307–309 PHP
divisions, 94–98 describing with tags, 32–33 adding
figures, 100–103 fundamentals of, 44–45 auto-replies in, 342–344
352 files, 103–106 HTML5 structure, 49–52 headers in, 342–344
grouping without fracturing, inserting JavaScript into arrays, 334–335
99–100 detecting events, 236–237 catch and send, 340–341
lists, 94–98 event handlers, 236 constants, 333–334
overview, 45–47 external files, 234–235 data validation, 330–332
paragraphs, 94–98 functions, 235 operators
practice examples, 106–107 handling with elements, arithmetic, 337
top of HTML5 document, 237–239 assignment, 336–337
86–90 overview, 234 overview, 328–329
<output> tag, 242–244 integrating color palette with, $_POST array, 330
78–81 program structures
integrating sound into, 211–213 arrays, 334–335
links constants, 333–334
P author relations, 135–137 objects, 335–336
<p> tag, 35, 94–98
browsing contexts in compu- properties, 335–336
page anchors, 137–140
ter browsers, 141–142 temporary data storage,
page IDs, 137–140
browsing contexts in mobile 332–333
page links
browsers, 142–143 variables, 333
author relations, 135–137
hierarchical sequential link setting up, 326–327
browsing contexts in computer
types, 137 testing, 327–328
browsers, 141–142
overview, 134 pixels
browsing contexts in mobile
page anchors, 137–140 density of, 58
browsers, 142–143
rel attribute, 134 overview, 176
hierarchical link types, 137
targets, 140–141
overview, 134
24_977279-bindex.indd 352 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
pixels per inch (PPI), 58 R sequential link types, 137

placing radio buttons, 297–301 server-side languages
images with align attribute, reference overview, 326
189–191 absolute, 104 setting up PHP, 326–327
maps on Web pages, 307 relative, 104–106 testing PHP, 327–328
plug-ins, 310–311 refreshing tags, 88 session storage, 312–316
PNG (Portable Network Graph- rel attribute setting up
ics), 177–178, 185–186 assigning icons to, 131–132 for canvas drawings, 257–258
Portuguese language attribute prefetching, 133 PHP, 326–327
value, 34 values for, 134 setting(s)
$_POST array, 330 relative reference, 104–106 file extension, 29
poster attribute, 226–227 removing canvas drawings, hexadecimal, 71–74
pound sign (#), 62 262–264 home base on Web pages, 86–87
PPI (pixels per inch), 58 RGB color RGB decimal integer, 70–71
practice examples hexadecimal settings, 71–74 single-page Web sites with iframes
audio, 214 names, 66–67 linking to graphics, 166–167
browsers, 25–26 overview, 66 on mobile devices, 169–170
<canvas> tag, 281 RGB and HSL percentages, 67–69 overview, 166
color values, 81 RGB decimal integer settings, thumbnail icons, 167–169
forms, 303 70–71 size
geolocation, 321–322 rowspan attribute, 120–122 file
HTML tags, 40–41 Russian language attribute value, 34 changing JPEG, 183–185
iframes, 170 changing SVG size, 186–187
images, 196–197 finding, 181
interactive data, 344 grayscale on Internet
JavaScript, 170–171, 252 S Explorer, 188 353
links, 146 Safari (Apple). see also video modifying with graphic
navigation strategies, 170–171 support for audio, 203 applications, 182
organizing Web pages, 106–107 using to interpret HTML5, overview, 179–181
storage, 321–322 22–23 image, 191–194
tables, 125–126 saving bandwidth, 185 sizes attribute, 133
tags, 25–26 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Smashing WordPress: Beyond the
video, 229–230 175–177, 186–187, 194–196 Blog (Hedengren), 325
Web design, 63–64 screen video capture, 225 sound. see also video
prefetching, 133 <script> tag, 89–90 Apple Safari support, 203
preload attribute, 202–203, 227 scripts, reasons for using, 89–90 autoplay attribute, 200
previewing different displays, sections, designing in, 91–94 browser support for, 203–204
24–25 <select> tag, 153–156 controls, 200–202
properties selecting converting files, 208
geolocation, 310–311 Apple Safari, 22–23 creating files
styling HTML5 elements with Google Chrome, 19–21 Macintosh OS X Sound
CSS3, 52–53 microphones in Windows 7 Studio, 208–209
Sound Recorder, 206 overview, 206
Microsoft Internet Explorer, 24 Windows 7 Sound Recorder,
Mozilla Firefox, 18–19 206–207
Q Opera, 21–22 loop, 203
QuickTime Player (Apple), 225 overview, 17 overview, 199–200
“Self-Reliance” (Emerson), 159 practice examples, 214
semicolon (;), 40 preload attribute, 202–203
24_977279-bindex.indd 353 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
sound (continued) inline style, 58–59 controls, 200–202

sound effects styling HTML5 elements converting files, 208
integrating into Web pages, with CSS3 properties, creating files, 206–209
211–213 52–53 loop, 203
overview, 209 style sheets overview, 199–200
transitions sounds, 209–211 alternate, 128–131 practice examples, 214
<source> tag, 204 embedded, 53–54 preload attribute, 202–203
<source> tag external, 55–57 sound effects, 209–213
codex parameter, 205–206 using with different browsers, <source> tag, 204
overview, 204 130 <base>, 86–87
type attribute, 204–205 <style> tag, 52–53 <body>, 32–33, 86
span element, 54 styling tables <br>, 45–46
Spanish language attribute value, 34 adding borders with CSS3, <canvas>
spans (table), 122–125 114–117 adding styles, 262–264
src attribute, 44, 226 data clarification with back- creating drawings, 258–260,
storage ground colors, 117–119 269–281
local, 316–320 subtraction (–) operator, 337 grid, 256–257
overview, 311–312 SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), images, 264–269
practice examples, 321–322 175–177, 186–187, 194–196 implementation, 256
session, 312–316 Switch Sound File Converter, 208 overview, 253–256
temporary data, 332–333 practice examples, 281
storing temporary values removing drawings, 262–264
arrays, 248–249 scripts, 89–90
creating objects, 250–251
T setting up drawings, 257–258
tables
DOM and browser effects, transparency, 74
354 complex
251–252 working with multiple draw-
colspan attribute, 120–122
objects, 249–250 ings, 260–262
overview, 120
overview, 244 <caption>, 113–114
rowspan attribute, 120–122
types of data, 245–246 <center>, 16–17
CSS3 table properties for
variables, 244–245, 246–247 <comment>, 35–38
HTML5, 110–112
story class, 110–112 creating, 8–9
elements, 113
streaming video, 215 discontinued, 15–17
overview, 109
string, 245 <div>, 94–98
practical spans, 122–125
structure <figcaption>, 100–103
practice examples, 125–126
HTML5, 49–52 <figure>, 100–103
styling
PHP program <form>, 242–244
adding borders with CSS3,
arrays, 334–335 <head>, 32, 86
114–117
constants, 333–334 <hgroup>, 50–52
data clarification with back-
objects, 335–336 how they work
ground colors, 117–119
properties, 335–336 basic HTML tag, 32
tabular data, 109, 112–114
temporary data storage, comment tag, 35–38
tabular data
332–333 describing pages with tags,
defined, 109
variables, 333 32–33
overview, 112–114
Web page, 47–49 identifying parts of tags,
tags
style 33–34
<a>. see links
adding to canvas drawings, language attribute, 34–35
<audio>
262–264 overview, 31
Apple Safari support, 203
adding to text with CSS3 <hr>, 99–100
autoplay attribute, 200
embedded style sheets, 53–54 <html>, 86
browser support for, 203–204
external style sheets, 55–58 HTML4, 11–15
24_977279-bindex.indd 354 10/28/10 10:13 PM

INDEX
<img>, 44 TextEdit, fixing on Macintosh, 30 objects, 249–250

<meta>, 44, 86, 87–88 3GP video format, 217, 221–222 overview, 244
nesting, 38–40 thumbnail icons, 167–169 types of data, 245–246
<output>, 242–244 Tidwell, Jennifer (author) variables, 244–245, 246–247
overview, 27 Designing Interfaces, 148 variables
<p>, 35, 94–98 work on grouping elements, overview, 244–245
parsing code 159–160 PHP, 333
fixing TextEdit on Macintosh, title attribute, 133 types of, 246–247
30 <tr> tag, 14 vertical bar (|), 40
fixing Windows default file transition sounds, 209–211 vertical navigation
extension settings, 29 transparency, adding to color, HTML5 mechanics of, 162–165
how files work with Web, 31 74–76 overview, 160
HTML5 and related files, 28 Tufte, Edward (information- video. see also audio
overview, 28 design thinker), 114–115, 148 autoplay attribute, 228
practice examples, 25–26, 40–41 type attribute, 133, 204–205 browser compatibility
refreshing, 88 Adobe Media Encoder CS5,
<script>, 89–90 221–222
<select>, 153–156 overview, 218–219
<source>
U WebM Miro Video Convert-
URL keyboards, datalist elements
codex parameter, 205–206 er, 219–220
on, 296–297
overview, 204 controls attribute, 228–229
URL type, 294
type attribute, 204–205 creating for Web
user navigation, 148–149
<style>, 52–53 camcorders, 223–224
<tr>, 14 overview, 222
<video> screen video capture, 225
autoplay attribute, 228 V webcams, 223 355
browser compatibility, values creating Web pages with,
218–222 assigning to preload attribute, 216–218
controls attribute, 202–203 height attribute, 229
228–229 defined, 33 loop attribute, 227–228
creating for Web, 223–225 values (color) overview, 215, 225
creating Web pages with, adding transparency to color, poster attribute, 226–227
216–218 74–76 practice examples, 229–230
height attribute, 229 creating color schemes, 74–78 preload attribute, 227
loop attribute, 227–228 integrating color palettes with src attribute, 226
overview, 215, 225 Web pages, 78–81 width attribute, 229
poster attribute, 226–227 practice examples, 81 <video> tag. see video
practice examples, 229–230 RGB color
preload attribute, 227 hexadecimal settings, 71–74
src attribute, 226 names, 66–67
width attribute, 229
W
overview, 66
W3C (World Wide Web Consor-
<wbr>, 45–46 RGB and HSL percentages,
tium), on tables, 110
target attribute, 140–141, 290 67–69
<wbr> tag, 45–46
temporary data storage, 332–333 RGB decimal integer settings,
Web
testing PHP, 327–328 70–71
camcorders, 223–224
text, adding style to values (temporary), storing
creating video for
embedded style sheets, 53–54 arrays, 248–249
overview, 222
external style sheets, 55–58 creating objects, 250–251
webcams, 223
inline style, 58–59 DOM and browser effects,
design, 63–64
styling HTML5 elements with 251–252
files for, 31
CSS3 properties, 52–53
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INDEX
Web (continued) HTML5 structure, 49–52 overview, 45–47

navigation concepts inserting JavaScript into paragraphs, divisions, and
designer navigation, 148–149 detecting events, 236–237 lists, 94–98
global navigation, 149–156 event handlers, 236 practice examples, 106–107
overview, 148 external files, 234–235 top of HTML5 document,
user navigation, 148–149 functions, 235 86–90
preserving layers in graphics, handling with elements, overview, 43
178–179 237–239 pixel density, 58
screen video capture, 225 overview, 234 placing maps on, 307
Web pages integrating color palette with, structure of, 47–49
adapting for mobile viewing, 78–81 “Web safe” colors, 177
310 integrating sound into, 211–213 Web sites, single-page with
adding links iframes
metadata to, 87–88 author relations, 135–137 linking to graphics, 166–167
objects, 320 browsing contexts in compu- on mobile devices, 169–170
adding style to text with CSS3 ter browsers, 141–142 overview, 166
embedded style sheets, 53–54 browsing contexts in mobile thumbnail icons, 167–169
external style sheets, 55–58 browsers, 142–143 webcams, 223
inline style, 58–59 hierarchical sequential link WebM video format, 217, 219–220
styling HTML5 elements types, 137 width attribute, 229
with CSS3 properties, overview, 134 Windows
52–53 page anchors, 137–140 finding file size in, 181
adjusting objects, 321 rel attribute, 134 fixing default file settings, 29
anchors, 137–140 targets, 140–141 installing PHP, 327
calling with JavaScript, 156–158 nesting, 144–146 Microsoft Movie Maker, 223
356 creating organizing Windows 7 Sound Recorder,
CSS3 classes, 59–61 designing in sections, 91–94 206–207
CSS3 IDs, 62–63 figures and captions, 100–103 World Wide Web Consortium
overview, 216–218, 307–309 files, 103–106 (W3C), on tables, 110
describing with tags, 32–33 grouping without fracturing, write() function, 235
fundamentals of, 44–45 99–100
24_977279-bindex.indd 356 10/28/10 10:13 PM

HTML 5

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01_977279-ffirs.

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01_977279-ffirs.indd i 10/28/10 9:54 PM

Editorial and Production

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A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication

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Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as

Set in 10/12 Minion Pro by Wiley Composition Services

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01_977279-ffirs.indd v 10/28/10 9:54 PM

About the Author

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PART I: THE LANGUAGE OF THE WEB 5

Chapter 1: Introducing HTML5 1

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Chapter 4: Working with Color Values 65

PART II: PAGES, SITES, AND DESIGNS 83

Chapter 5: Organizing a Page 85

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PART III: MEDIA IN HTML5 173

Chapter 9: Images 175

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Saved by Source: Plan B 204

PART IV: DYNAMIC HTML5 TAGS PLUS A LITTLE

Chapter 12: Adding Just Enough JavaScript 233

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Chapter 13: Thundering Your Site with Canvas 253

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03_977279-intro.indd 1 10/28/10 9:54 PM

PART I: THE LANGUAGE OF THE WEB

PART II: PAGES, SITES, AND DESIGNS

PART III: MEDIA IN HTML5

PART IV: DYNAMIC HTML5 TAGS PLUS A LITTLE

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03_977279-intro.indd 3 10/28/10 9:54 PM

Chapter 1: Introducing HTML5

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CREATING WITH TAGS: AN OVERVIEW

Figure 1-1: Containers in HTML5.

For example, the following line,

<h1>This is big text.</h1>

This is big text.

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INCORPORATING THE NEW HTML5 ELEMENTS

Table 1.1 New Elements in HTML5

<article> Self-contained composition in document

<aside> Content tangentially related to content of the article

<canvas> Graphic development container

<command> A command that the user can invoke

<details> Discloses details of an element

<embed> External interactive plug-in or content

<figcaption> Caption tag for the ﬁgure element

<footer> Container for a footer for a section or page

<header> Container for header for a section or page

<hgroup> A heading of a section with multiple h1 to h6 elements in a document

<keygen> The key pair generator control representation.

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Table 1.1 (continued)

New Element Description

<nav> Representation of a section of a document intended for navigation

<output> Deﬁnes the progress of a task of any kind